
r.i;,s S drTiyf 

linok -Ji joy 



PRESENTED I'.Y 




j^>- ■^H^^^L. 




Samuel Morris Dodd 



Sixty Years Upbuilder of Business 
Helper of Men, in St. Louis 



BY 

Walter B. Stevens 



Printed for Private Distribution by Friends 

St. Louis 

MDCCCCXII 



*>* 



The story of his life, if it were written in full, 

would be more fascinating than the dreams of fiction. 

— Rev. Dr. Samuel J. Niccolls. 



Publisher 
& MNI913 



PL* (MjvdrftioJ^ 




Dear Sir: 

In behalf of a few intimate friends of the late S. M. 
Dodd of this City who have co-operated with his family 
in bringing out a biographical sketch of Mr. Dodd, I am 
sending you a copy of it with our compliments. We were 
fortunate in securing as biographer Mr. Walter B. Stevens, 
a well-known journalist of this City. Mr. Stevens had 
been acquainted with Mr. Dodd for more than forty 
years. When the matter was proposed to him he replied: 
"I certainly think some one should do it. Mr. Dodd's 
career, properly written up, should have a wholesome 
influence upon young business men. *' With this inspiration 
Mr. Stevens applied himself "con amore" to the task. 
That he has performed it well will be appreciated by 
Mr. Dodd's numerous friends. 

Respectfully, 




1654 Pierce Bldg. 
St. Louis, Mo. 
December, 1912. 



The Inspiration 



cAd 



Samuel Morris Dodd lived in St. Louis from 1851 
to 1912. He loved the city of his adoption. He never 
lost faith in it. He saw it grow from a fever and fire 
stricken border community without a mile of railroad 
into the recognized commercial and industrial center 
of the mid-continent section in a period of prosperity 
at high tide. In that development Mr. Dodd had 
notable part. He was an upbuilder. He was busy 
every one of the sixty years from the summer he assorted 
green buffalo hides to the winter when he sat for the 
last time in the directorates of four of the city's chief 
enterprises. Certain elements of success in his career 
were distinctive. In range his activities were extra- 
ordinary. They were continuous. Mr. Dodd never 
retired. His capital was not transformed into securities 
and locked up in a safe deposit box. The man and his 
money were employed to the last days. The effort of 
the one and the use of the other were devoted in the 
main to St. Louis interests and enterprises. They 
achieved wonders in more than one industry's crisis. 
But longer than the recollection of his upbuilding in 
material forms will live the memory of his widespread 
influence as helper of men. Samuel M. Dodd shared 
with the other fellow. "I never knew a man more 
ready to help men, " is the testimony of Rev. Dr. 
Samuel J. Niccolls, the oldest of his intimate friends. 
Long time associates of "Uncle Sam" Dodd, as they 
called him in respectful affection, felt that such useful 
citizenship was worthy of more than passing note; 
that it deserved place in the annals of St. Louis; that 
it offered inspiration to those coming after. Hence 

this narrative. ljr n 

— W . IS. s. 



KUTTERER-JANSEN PRINTING CO. 
SAINT LOUIS 



Samuel M. Dodd, 
Boy and Man 

"The race of Dodds" some one called the virile 
family of which Samuel M. Dodd was a member. 
There was a Rev. John Dod who lived ninety-six 
years, from 1549 to 1645, in England. He had 
twelve children. His brothers and sisters numbered 
sixteen. In the "Lives of the Puritans" Rev. John 
Dod is given place as "a divine of great learning 
and popularity." He was called commonly "the 
Decalogist" because of "An Exposition of the Ten 
Commandments." For his bold preaching on the 
needed reformation of the church Rev. John Dod 
was suspended. After him his son Rev. Timothy 
Dod was ejected for non-conformity. Descendants 
of Rev. John Dod are said to have been among the 
20,000 pilgrims who came into New England about 
1630-40. One of these Dods was Daniel of Branford, 
Connecticut. From him descended the Dodds of 
New Jersey. Half a century ago the origin of the 
numerous New Jersey branch of the family was told 
in verse: 

From England came they o'er the stormy main, 

Daniel and Mary in their youthful prime, 

Seeking a home here in the wilderness, 

Where roamed the Indian— destined soon to die, 

Leaving behind them children, four of whom 

Sons under age. By that dear Hand that leads 

The blind by unknown ways to a large place 

Provided for tnem, tnese were brought to dwell, 

Beside the River, called in red man's speech, 

Passaic, where stands to-day the city fair 

Of Newark, famous for its avenues 

And parks adorned with trees, laid out 

And planted by forecasting sires, 

And for its workshops, numerous and vast, 

Whose products fill the markets of the world. 



Out of these four, three married in due time, 
Daniel the eldest, Stephen, Samuel, 
From whom, during two centuries, have sprung 
Many descendants; not a few choice men, 
That in times past and now, by honorable sweat 
Of brow or brain, have won a good repute, 
And public mention due for service done 
In cause of God, or country, or mankind. 

There were enough Dodds to give the name of 
Dodd Town to a community. They peopled the 
Oranges — Orange, East Orange, West Orange and 
South Orange. In the ninth generation 431 male 
descendants of Daniel Dod of Branford were living. 
There are now more than 1,000. Descendants in 
the female line number ten times as many as in the 
male. Samuel M. Dodd was born in what is now 
East Orange, on the 3rd of June, 1832. Eight 
children had Stephen Dodd and Mary Condit, — 
seven of them boys. Samuel Morris was the third. 
The grandfathers on both sides, Eleazer Dodd and 
Samuel Condit, were soldiers in the Revolutionary 
war. Sqme time after the Connecticut Dods moved 
to New Jersey the family changed the name to 
Dodd. When Samuel M. Dodd was becoming known 
as a rising young business man in St. Louis he had 
nine cousins of varying degrees, descended from 
Daniel Dod of Branford, who were ministers of the 
gospel; they were scattered in six states and one 
foreign country. The piety of Rev. John Dod, the 
Puritan, was bequeathed. 

Strong religious sentiment has been a trait of 
the Dodd family down to the present generation. 
Samuel M. Dodd shared it. On Orange mountain 
is a monument erected to mark the path where the 
Dodds in early days went across to church. It is 
of stone and bears the chiseled words: "The 
Christian Path." 



Samuel M. Dodd took great pride in that monu- 
ment. On one occasion when they were visiting the 
old home Mr. Dodd took his pastor, Rev. Dr. 
Niccolls, to see the stone cross and pointed to the 
inscription: 

"The Christian Pilgrims, 
Who this pathway trod, 
Are now in Heaven 
And walk with God." 

All of the Oranges and the adjacent small towns 
had a population of only 3854 when Samuel M. 
Dodd was a boy. The village school and Bloomfield 
academy supplied the education that the youngster 
thought he needed for business life. Early in his 
teens the youth got a clerkship in the country store 
of one of his cousins, Samuel W. Baldwin. In the 
Dodd family were several hatters. Samuel M. Dodd 
did not learn this trade. His taste led in the direc- 
tion of selling and bookkeeping. He went from the 
country store to the New York wholesale house of 
William C. Booth, dealer in hats and caps. At the 
age of nineteen he felt qualified to move westward 
and grow up with the country. Mr. Baldwin had 
established business connections in St. Louis. A 
distant cousin, Bethuel Dodd, had been one of the 
early settlers of St. Louis and had made a fortune 
trading with the Indians. 

When Samuel M. Dodd left home there was no 
railroad west of Cumberland, Md. The journey in 
1851 was by stage through the Alleghany Moun- 
tains to Brownsville, Pa., on the Monongahela 
river and thence by the Ohio and Mississippi rivers 
to St. Louis. Mr. Dodd found a position with 
Nourse, Crane & Co. When that house was bought 
by Baldwin, Randell & Co. he continued with the 

7 



new firm. "Hats, caps and furs" was a quite 
natural business association in the St. Louis fifties. 
The finest hats were made of beaver skins. Pelts 
of lesser valued animals entered into the manu- 
facture of headgear. A coon tail dangling from the 
back of a fur cap was widely popular. Samuel M. 
Dodd began his career in St. Louis with the assort- 
ing of buffalo hides, the most disagreeable task in 
the business. Day after day and week after week he 
opened up the packs of a dozen or a score of hides, 
greasy and ill smelling. In one pile he placed the 
robes on which the Indian squaws had worked their 
rude curing processes, emblazoning in pigment the 
mystic signs of the tribe. These were the most 
highly valued skins. In the second grade young 
Dodd piled the hides which had been taken from the 
carcass with such care that they were whole. Into 
other heaps went the hides which were in parts or 
which had been slashed in the skinning. The as- 
sorting required a rather dose examination of each 
hide. In those da}^s the great fur companies were 
no longer monopolizing and systematizing the trade. 
The shipments came from many hunters and traders. 
Buffalo hides by the tens of thousands reached St. 
Louis every season. The assortment was the work 
of spring and summer time. In after years Mr. Dodd 
referred with good humor to these trying exper- 
iences, he could recall the sights and smells of that 
hide loft on Main street. One day when he was in 
a reminiscent way with a friend he wondered "how 
many of our young fellows these days would be 
willing to begin business life assorting buffalo skins." 
From the clerkship which involved the drudgery 
Mr. Dodd advanced to the position of traveling 
representative of the house. He rode on horseback 
through the trade territory of St. Louis. In this 



way while on his trips to Springfield Mr. Dodd came 
to know and admire Abraham Lincoln. 

He rose to head bookkeeper of the firm. Mar- 
velous stories are told of his facility with figures. 
This readiness remained with him in after years. 
Mr. Dodd sitting in meetings of directors frequently 
astonished his associates by the rapidity with which 
he made calculations. 

"I was present/' Isaac S. Taylor, the architect, re- 
called, "when a member of the firm of Shickle, Har- 
rison & Valle laid before Mr. Dodd an itemized 
statement of the iron work furnished for a large 
building. Mr. Dodd took the paper and glanced 
down the long column of figures in a casual way. 

" 'What's this?' he asked. 

" 'Our statement of the iron work for the build- 
ing.' 

" 'But it isn't correct.' 

" 'Oh, it must be; our head bookkeeper prepared 
it; he is a very careful man.' 

" 'No,' said Mr. Dodd, handing back the paper, 
'The footings are several thousand dollars out of 
the way.' 

"Mr. Dodd was right. He had added up that long 
column by glancing over it and had caught the 
error." 

In the house of Baldwin, Randell & Co., Mr. Dodd 
made such an impression of business capacity that 
he was taken in as a junior partner. He advanced 
to the position of manager. Even then he had that 
facility, so conspicuous in his later enterprises, of 
bringing out the best in those associated with him. 
He organized and directed with such executive en- 
thusiasm that Baldwin, Randell & Co. obtained and 
held a foremost position in their line of business. In 
1862, eleven years after his coming to St. Louis, 

9 



Mr. Dodd bought out his partners and became the 
sole proprietor of the house. When the war closed 
he saw the opportunity to expand in a new direction. 
The wholesale dry goods house of Dodd, Brown & 
Co. was established in 1866. The first year's sales 
reached the astonishing total for those days of $1,- 
250,000. At the beginning the firm did business in 
a building fronting 25 feet on Main street. In three 
years the increasing sales prompted removal to a 
large store on M^ain between Pine and Olive streets. 
Two years later Mr. Dodd became the pioneer of 
the most radical trade movement in the commercial 
history of St. Louis. He arranged for the construc- 
tion of a five-story building at Fifth and St. Charles 
streets. Thus, in 1870, was inaugurated the west- 
ward movement of the wholesale houses of St. Louis. 
Mr. Dodd's announcement that he was going to 
leave Main street was regarded as unwise by the 
merchants who within five years followed his 
example. 

Mr. Dodd continued in the dry goods business 
twenty years. His forecast of the growth of St. 
Louis westward was vindicated not only in the trans- 
fer of the business center but in respect to real 
estate. He saw that Washington avenue was a com- 
ing thoroughfare. The tobacco warehouse occupied 
one side of the avenue near Sixth when Mr. Dodd 
was negotiating for his great store on Fifth street or 
Broadway, as it was afterwards named. In the 
season when the warehouse wasn't occupied by 
hogsheads of Missouri tobacco the volunteer firemen 
held their annual balls there. John G. Copelin 
bought the site of the old warehouse. Some people 
were questioning his sanity. 

"That's the best transaction in real estate this 
town has known in many a day," commented 

10 



Mr. Dodd. "If that's all the evidence they've got, 
Mr. Copelin isn't crazy." 

Real estate investments were the anchors which 
Mr. Dodd cast to the windward and which saved 
him in time of commercial stress. They vindicated 
repeatedly his accurate judgment of prospective val- 
ues. Soon after Mr. Dodd established himself on 
Fifth and St. Charles streets he organized a real es- 
tate coterie to acquire ground in the adjoining block, 
from St. Charles street to Washington avenue. Mr. 
Dodd's partner, Mr. Brown, and the late George A. 
Madill joined in this investment. The Broadway 
real estate company was formed later. Beginning 
with a purchase at $50,000 on the St. Charles street 
side of the block Mr. Dodd and his associates ac- 
quired one small piece after another until they owned 
most of the property now occupied by the Nugent 
department store. One of the last purchases was 
the corner of Broadway and Washington avenue, 
then in use for a saloon. For this the price of $62 
a square foot, enormous in that day, was paid. 
When he died Mr. Dodd held the controlling interest 
in the Broadway real estate company. He had 
passed through one period when he thought that all 
he might have left was his interest in that Broadway 
ground. 



11 



Mr. Dodd in the 
American Central 

"Losses paid since organization, $22,924,744.17." 
So reads the golden legend on a plate glass front of 
the financial "street" of St. Louis. Below is the more 
detailed record: 

"This company paid losses in full in the following 
conflagrations : 

"Chicago, 111., 

"Portland, Me., 

"Boston, Mass., 

"Waterbury, Conn., 

"Paterson, N. J., 

"Baltimore, Md., 

"Rochester, N. Y., 

"Chelsea, Mass., 

"San Francisco, Cal." 

On the ninth of October, 1871, began "the great 
Chicago fire." Early next morning fire apparatus of 
St. Louis was taken across the river by ferry and 
was loaded on flat cars to go to the burning city if 
needed. All that day the members of the Merchants' 
Exchange were filling a train with cooked provisions 
for the homeless thousands. The second day the 
directors of the American Central Insurance com- 
pany met and adopted this resolution: 

Whereas, this company has sustained a loss of some two 
hundred, and fifty to three hundred thousand dollars, by the 
great fire in Chicago. 

Resolved; That it is expedient for this board to make a 
call upon the stockholders of twenty per cent upon the stock 
subscribed, to liquidate this loss and keep our capital un- 
impaired, and do now authorize and instruct the officers of 
the company to make said assessment to be collected in two 

12 



equal installments of ten per cent each, payable on the first 
day of November and the first day of December next. 

Also for the information and benefit of Chicago policy 
holders: 

Resolved; that the American Central Insurance Company 
will pay all losses immediately on adjustment. 

The director who offered the resolution and moved 
its adoption in the face of doubters was one of the 
youngest members of the board. The meeting was 
held in his office. Samuel M. Dodd was taking the 
stand for financial faith and commercial courage 
which he was to maintain in the community stead- 
fastly and consistently through forty-one years. The 
company's losses by the Chicago fire were $275,000. 
The company's total assets were $300,000. Mr. 
Dodd and his fellow directors on a joint note raised 
the amount necessary and met the Chicago losses 
not only in full but without delay. The proposition 
proved profitable, just as Mr. Dodd had argued it 
would. "Here's our opportunity," he had said, 
"We'll raise this money and pay off every obliga- 
tion." 

In three or four years the company had made it 
all back. Then came other conflagrations. Port- 
land was taken care of by the earnings of the year. 
Boston, however, hit hard. Where Mr. Dodd and 
his associates thought they had the safest risks, they 
lost an immense amount. When they got by Boston 
the gain was steady and succeeding conflagrations of 
$250,000 to $500,000 were taken care of with the 
earnings. Finally came San Francisco with a loss 
to the American Central of $1,680,000. This blow 
impared the reserve fund. 

"What shall we do Uncle Sam?" asked his fellow 
directors. 

"Increase the capital stock; I'll take my share, 
you take yours," was the advice in that subdued, 
softly modulated tone. 



And they did. American Central was capitalized 
at $2,000,000 paid up and President George T. Cram 
went to San Francisco with the money to pay every 
dollar called for by the American Central policies. 

The American Central Insurance company goes 
back for its beginning to the Atlantic Mutual. Or- 
ganized in 1853, such men as John F. Darby, Way- 
man Crow, John S. Cavender, D. A. January, James 
Smith and half a score of others gave it character. 
In 1869 the name of American Central was taken, 
Mr. Dodd being one of the directors and becoming 
with the action on the Chicago fire a leading spirit. 
For a long time he was vice-president. One day a 
young man, Edward T. Campbell, who had made 
something of a name for himself as an insurance man 
in New York came to St. Louis on a vacation. He 
called to see Mr. Cram and the head of the American 
Central took him down to see Mr. Dodd. 

"We want to shape our business differently in the 
East," said Mr. Dodd. "They're burning us up 
there. If we could only get going right down there 
we'd have the world by the tail." 

The visitor was encouraged to give his views on 
the proper methods to be pursued by a St. Louis 
company doing business on the Atlantic seaboard. 
Mr. Dodd listened and broke in with: 

"Campbell! That's the whole matter." 

Turning to President Cram, Mr. Dodd said: 

"George! There's your man." 

Mr. Campbell was persuaded to take up his resi- 
dence in St. Louis. He was given a small title and 
a large responsibility in the American Central 
organization. One day Mr. Dodd strolled into the 
office and said casually: 

"Campbell! You ought to be vice-president of 
the American Central in name as well as in fact. 

14 



I'm vice-president but I never do anything. I'm 
going to resign and make you vice-president." 

He did it, thus placing the present executive in 
line to become the head of the organization he was 
building up. 

"Uncle Sam Dodd beat any man to hold on to a 
business proposition I ever saw," is the testimony of 
President Campbell who was with him through the 
tribulations and triumphs of the American Central. 
When Mr. Dodd died he was the largest stockholder 
in the company. 

In their tribute spread upon the record his as- 
sociates recall that "for forty-three years Mr. Dodd 
was connected with the American Central Insurance 
Company as a director; twenty-nine years as hon- 
orary vice-president, and seven years preceding his 
death as treasurer." They say: 

It is impossible to fittingly describe the strong and fine 
traits of character of Mr. Dodd; his generosity and sterling 
integrity; his love for participation in various forms of phil- 
anthropic work; his patriotism and civic pride, or his re- 
markable business ability which made him one of the fore- 
most and most successful citizens of St. Louis. He had the 
gift of kindliness of heart and gracefulness of expression which 
made his presence always welcome. 

During his long and useful life his courage and confidence 
were ever helpful to the officers and directors of this company. 
Beyond all, we cherish the memory of his support, his at- 
tractive personality and warm-heartedness which endeared 
Mr. Dodd to the wide circle of his friends, and this is the loss 
they will feel in the closing of his long and useful life. He 
has left us the legacy of devotion to high ideals, which we 
shall treasure as an inspiration to us all. 



Philosophy Taught 
by a Crisis 

A crisis in the career of Samuel M. Dodd came in 
the seventies. During the years of his early man- 
hood he had applied all of the energy and thrift 
inherited from his Puritan ancestry to the establish- 
ment of a good business reputation in St. Louis. 
The most imposing commercial structure on Fifth 
street, now known as Broadway, bore the name of 
Dodd, Brown & Co., wholesale dry goods. Every 
dollar that Mr. Dodd had accumulated he had 
invested on his faith in the future of St. Louis. At 
forty years of age he was one of the master minds in 
the community. Financial stringency caught him. 
All in the world that he had Mr. Dodd offered to his 
creditors. His offer was declined. Those to whom 
he owed money urged that he make a fair settlement 
and continue in business. An assignee in the per- 
son of Gerard B. Allen was chosen. Such was the 
estimation in which Mr. Dodd was held that Mr. 
Allen would not accept compensation for his services. 
The creditors were satisfied. They encouraged Mr. 
Dodd and his partners to resume. With the restor- 
ation of confidence Mr. Dodd found his assets were 
more than his liabilities by a margin sufficient to put 
him on his feet. One of his first acts after hopeful- 
ness returned was to show his appreciation of Mr. 
Allen's kindness. The expression of gratitude took 
on a form characteristic of Mr. Dodd's way of doing 
things. Captain W. R. Hodges, the present city 
auditor, was recognized by the St. Louis public as a 
most competent judge in matters of art. Mr. Dodd 

16 



said to the captain with whom he was on terms of 
intimate friendship : 

"I want you to buy a picture which I can give to 
Mr. Allen." 

"What kind of a picture?" 

"You are authorized to spend up to $1500. I 
leave the rest entirely to your judgment. You buy; 
I'll pay." 

Captain Hodges went to New York and devoted 
several days to the search. He chose the painting 
of a woman, a sweet, pretty subject, and went the 
limit of the commission. To-day, nearly forty years 
afterwards, George L. Allen says, "We think more 
of that picture than any other we've got." 

In those days of 1873-1880 that tried business 
men's souls, a young St. Louis minister did a service 
of far-reaching effect. Mr. Dodd was much de- 
pressed. Rev. Dr. Niccolls induced him to go to the 
Adirondacks. In the wild woods the nerves were 
steadied; the spirit recovered its tone. The minis- 
ter and the merchant lived in a cabin after the most 
simple ways. Day by day Mr. Dodd in the prime 
of early manhood tramped through the wilderness, 
fighting and winning the battle with self. At times 
he was gone for days, sleeping under rude shelter 
where night overtook him. He came back to St. 
Louis with pyhsical health restored, with a business 
philosophy learned, with broader and better views 
of life, fit to take the commanding position which 
was to be his through almost two generations. 

After that experience of the seventies, failure never 
discouraged Mr. Dodd. Temporary setbacks only 
stiffened him. It was his fortune to take hold 
of business propositions which called for heavy 
expenditures and much time before success was real- 
ized. Perhaps more than any other upbuilder of 



St. Louis in the past thirty years Mr. Dodd has ven- 
tured his means and given his thought to great 
enterprises which were extremely hazardous in their 
beginning. 

"I make it a rule never to think of my losses," Mr. 
Dodd said one day when a friend mentioned some 
transaction which hadn't turned out well. "I don't 
worry about them. I don't fret over my losses." 

And he didn't. There was a serenity of manner 
which did not fail even when the loss occurred 
through misplaced confidence. It prompted such 
expression as this to Edward L. Adreon who occu- 
pied the same office many years with him: 

"My thoughts and my feelings are with my friends. 
I never waste any on my enemies. I simply blot 
them out." 

"Well, there's another fellow for oblivion," Mr. 
Dodd would say when somebody had abused his 
confidence. 

"Mr. Dodd never treasured resentment," Edward 
L. Adreon recalls. "When a man had done him a 
dirty trick he was done with him. But the exper- 
ience never shook his faith in human nature. He was 
imposed upon but not in large affairs. He always 
appealed to the best in everybody; he saw good 
in everybody. He did not take an exaggerated view 
of human nature but a good clear estimate, and that 
guarded him. His loyalty to personal friends and 
to business associates bound them to him with the 
strongest kind of ties." 

Mr. Dodd was not of an inventive turn. He pro- 
fessed no extended knowledge of mechanics. His 
mental habit did not lead him into investigation of 
patents. But he had positive genius in judgment of 
men. Yet he occasionally backed an inventor finan- 
cially, where judgment had little to do with it. The 

18 



papers of which Marion S. Allcorn who was Mr. 
Dodd's confidential secretary many years is cus- 
todian include the records of thousands of dollars 
thus expended. But Mr. Dodd did this as another 
man of means might grubstake a miner. He took a 
chance. When, however, he ventured his capital 
in considerable amount and gave his time and 
thought to industrial development on a large scale, 
Mr. Dodd's policy was very different. He paid little 
attention to the patents upon which such develop- 
ment was based, but he selected with great care the 
men to carry on the investigation and the develop- 
ment. He was unerring in this direction. 

"Mr. Dodd," said Mr. Blair, "is to be credited 
with the final success of the Pintsch lighting system 
on trains. He achieved this through his faculty of 
picking the right man. In the early days of the 
Pintsch company the capital was about exhausted 
when Mr. Dodd stepped in and insisted the business 
should be left in the hands of R. M. Dixon, now 
president of the Safety Car Heating and Lighting 
Company. He saved that enterprise as he did the 
American Central, the American Brake and the 
Wagner companies." 

From the American Embassy at Vienna, Richard 
C. Kerens wrote to Marion S. Allcorn, when the 
news of Mr. Dodd's death reached him: 

Soon after my coming to St. Louis nearly thirty-six years 
ago, it was my good fortune to become acquainted with Mr. 
Dodd. He was then one of the large merchants of St. Louis. 
Our acquaintanceship ripened into friendship and later into 
business association. Mr. Dodd participated in many enter- 
prises with which I was also connected. I was also associated 
with Mr. Dodd's undertakings. No more delightful associate 
in business than Mr. Dodd could be found, and social inter- 
course with him was always a pleasure. 

What the present generation of the business world 

19 



of St. Louis thought of Mr. Dodd is well voiced by 
George L. Edwards: 

"There have been two men in the presence of 
whom I always felt like taking off my hat. They 
were James E. Yeatman and Samuel M. Dodd." 

Mr. Dodd made life-long friends. In the earliest 
of his sixty years of business life in St. Louis he 
won the good will of his employer, John M. Randell; 
he never lost it. The high esteem continued with 
the family toward Mr. Dodd throughout his life. 
Mr. Randell had been associated with Robert Camp- 
bell, one of the most successful of the mid-century 
fur and Indian traders in St. Louis. He retired from 
the business with what in those days was esteemed a 
fortune and moved to New York. Mr. Dodd in 
rising step by step to the management and finally 
to the proprietary control of the business had the 
hearty encouragement of Mr. Randell. He showed 
his appreciation by giving attention to the St. Louis 
interests of Mr. Randell and later of the Randell 
estate. The daughters of Mr. Randell, Mrs. C. K. 
Garrison and Miss Lillie B. Randell of London con- 
tinued to look upon Mr. Dodd as a valued friend 
and to regard his advice in business matters. When 
the crisis in his affairs came and the future looked 
blue, these ladies loaned Mr. Dodd $25,000 to aid 
in his re-establishment. Mr. Dodd paid the interest 
a number of years and was about ready to return 
the principal when the two ladies declined to receive 
any more return and cancelled the note. In the 
little group of those nearest by ties of blood and 
longest in friendship assembled at Belief ontaine last 
February were a son and grandson of John M. 
Randell. 

Writing to a friend in St. Louis about the esteem 
20 



in which Mr. Dodd was held by her family Miss 
Lillie B. Randell said: 

"He was a cultured, refined and clever young gen- 
tleman. Both my father and mother had a great 
regard for him personally, which continued all 
through their lives. Mr. Dodd felt very grateful to 
my parents and when my father died he related to 
us many generous acts which my father had done 
but had never mentioned to us. Mr. Dodd never 
failed to refer to their kindness in writing for the 
past twenty-two years I have been abroad. All of 
our family have always been his greatest friends. 
We admired his grand, noble and generous charac- 
ter." 

Both Mr. Randell and Robert Campbell were pol- 
ished gentlemen with high business ideals. Mr. 
Dodd coming without financial capital but with good 
principles and willing ambitions quickly won the 
confidence of these men and maintained it with 
their descendants. With Hugh Campbell, the son 
of Robert Campbell, he held through all of the years 
the same cordial relation that he did with the children 
of Mr. Randell. 

Colonel Charles D. Comfort as a boy entered the 
store of Dodd, Brown & Co. in 1871, advancing to 
the position of confidential secretary and then to 
junior partnership. 

"From the first day Mr. Dodd became my friend," 
Colonel Comfort said, "and he was my friend as 
long as he lived. That was his way to continue his 
friendship when it was once formed. Although I 
didn't always do as he wanted or advised, still he 
stuck to me. Mr. Dodd was the best friend I ever 
had." 

Competition in the wholesale dry goods business 
was strenuous in the seventies. Four great firms 



were rivals. They were Dodd, Brown & Co., Samuel 
C. Davis & Co., Crow, McCreery & Co. and Chase 
& Cabot. Commercial St. Louis looked on and 
marveled. When one of these commanders of 
commerce came back from a trip he was good for 
a two-column interview. A Franklin avenue re- 
tailer reviewed the situation in vigorous comment 
which was repeated up and down Fourth and Fifth 
street business houses and in every bank on Third 
street. He said: 

"Chase & Cabot does der talkin'. Crow, McCreery 
& Company make der money. Samuel C. Davis, 
he's got de money. Dodd, Brown & Co., dem fel- 
lers sell der goods." 

A matter of record is that Dodd, Brown & Co.'s 
sales, beginning in 1866 with $1,500,000, reached 
$6,000,000 a year in the seventies. But the compe- 
tition cut the margin close. When in 1878, Mr. 
Dodd and Mr. Brown encountering financial stress 
felt that they could not go on and offered to turn 
over everything, the 350 creditors represented claims 
to the amount of over $1,000,000. They united in 
a request that the firm make a fair settlement and 
continue in business. Dodd, Brown & Co. accepted 
this proposition and the first year after resuming 
business the house cleared $125,000, evidence of the 
esteem in which Mr. Dodd and Mr. Brown and their 
associate partners were held. 



22 



As Rev. Dr. Niccolls 
Knew Him 

After that first season in the Adirondacks which 
did so much for him Mr. Dodd went back to the 
woods twenty-eight summers. He shared Dr. Nic- 
colls' cabin three or four years. Later he joined 
Colonel Soper in building the place which was 
rented one season to President Benjamin Harrison. 

What the woods had done for him, Mr. Dodd 
wanted done for others. He became an active spirit 
in the Adirondack League which acquired 100,000 
acres. More than one nerve- worn St. Louisan had 
occasion to remember thankfully the day that he 
had been a guest at Mr. Dodd's cabin. Edward L. 
Adreon had a personal experience. On a visit to 
the camp he was asked by Mr. Dodd to look over 
several pieces of ground which the latter had bought 
and give an opinion as to the most eligible. He did 
so, never thinking that the request meant more than 
a desire for his judgment, and reported that he 
thought No. 46 was the best. Two or three years 
later, having become more familiar with the physical 
gain of these vacations in the woods, Mr. Adreon 
said to Mr. Dodd: 

"Uncle Sam, I believe I'd like to buy a lot if I can 
get one and join the colony." 

Mr. Dodd smiled. 

"Your lot is ready for you. That No. 46 is yours." 

And then he indicated the spot which Mr. Adreon 
had selected as his choice two years previously; he 
had held it for him all that time, looking forward 
to the possibility that Mr. Adreon might want mem- 
bership, nursing his plan but never saying a word 
about it. 

23 



"He was the happiest man I ever saw," Mr. 
Adreon said, "and his main source of happiness was 
giving happiness to others. He enjoyed immensely 
every smile he would create." 

"Mr. Dodd thought there was no other place like 
that for recreation," Dr. Niccolls said. "Every day 
was a bright day with him. He loved to get away 
in the woods. He would get a guide and be gone two 
or three days camping where night overtook him. 
He saw the funny side of everything. One time when 
we were fishing on the river and the trout were 
pretty thick, Mr. Dodd landed his catch in the brush. 
He looked at the badly mangled line and said, 'I 
wonder if I couldn't throw as well as that with my 
feet.' He was marvelously successful in catching 
lake fish; he always got his limit. He had the quiet 
patience for that kind of fishing. He was a good 
shot and went out on the stand but he couldn't fire 
without his glasses. The first time he brought into 
the woods a hammerless gun he boasted enthusi- 
astically of the merits. One day soon after he started 
out and took his stand the deer came rushing by; 
Mr. Dodd held out the gun but it didn't go off. He 
put on his glasses and began to examine the lock. 
I said, 'I want you to get me one of those hammerless 
guns.' He enjoyed the joke as well as the rest of 
us and he gave me a beautiful gun. I never knew 
a man who delighted more in the life of the woods." 

The close companionship of many years prompted 
from Dr. Niccolls this touching tribute to Mr. Dodd 
at the obsequies: 

The sorrow which we feel at this hour, is not merely that 
which arises from sympathy with others in the hour of their 
bereavement. It is intensified, with a sense of personal loss. 
It has in it the pain of a personal bereavement, for the man 
who has just left us, through the gates of death, was bound 
to most of us by the tenderest ties of friendship. For myself 

24 



if I were to consult my own feelings my choice would be to sit 
in the silence of grief and dwell in tender recollection upon 
the life that has meant so much to me during all the changes 
and trials, the hopes and labors of well nigh fifty years. I 
would let memory which the atmosphere of death cannot 
benumb but rather quickens set before me in radiant light the 
faithful friend whose love never faltered in its helpful min- 
istries. But alas! 

"Open converse there is none. 
So much the vital spirit sinks, 
To see the vacant chair and think 
How good! How kind! and he is gone." 

But what remains to you and to me is worthy of being 
cherished in our memories. It is not for us with our limited 
knowledge to pass final judgment upon human lives; but 
some of them have been so rich in service and are so plainly 
marked with qualities of high worth that failure on our part 
to appreciate them would proclaim our own baseness. And 
never do they appear more beautiful than in an hour like 
this, when the presence of death silences all envy or resent- 
ment and makes us alive to their true worth through the 
realization of the loss that has come to us. So it is with this 
bereavement. 

Our friend was not a perfect man; he had his faults and 
frailties as we all have. With him as with other men there 
was the old conflict between the flesh and the spirit, often 
bitter and sorrowful to him: but it was not a losing battle, 
for he came off conqueror and more than a conqueror through 
the grace of God. The story of his life, if it were written in 
full, would be more fascinating than the dreams of fiction. 
Even as partly known to us it is fu'l of instruction and en- 
couragement. It is the story of a young man without fortune 
or influential friends but with that priceless capital which 
any young man may possess, a determined will and steadfast 
adherence to righteousness and truth, who entered business 
life in this city half a century ago. Beginning his career as an 
obscure clerk, he ended it as one of our foremost citizens, a 
man of recognized power, with a fortune honorably acquired. 
He accepted with youthful enthusiasm the drudgery and toil 
of the apprenticeship to business life. The school through 
which he passed was a severe one, but he did not flinch from 
its training. The result was that he became a man of rare 
business capacity and sound judgment in financial affairs, a 
trusted leader in great financial and industrial enterprises. 
Three of the leading commercial and industrial institutions 
of our city stand as memorials alike to his foresight, his zeal, 
and his business sagacity. 

Beyond this, and of vastly more value, were his moral 
qualities, the features of his character which secured for him 
the affection and confidence of his fellow citizens. He was 
no seeker after place or honor; rather was it his ambition and 

25 



desire to serve others. His genial and loving nature responded 
to the needs of others, moved him to assist them in their 
labors and to help bear their burdens. A generation ago, it 
was the custom among business men, to a greater degree than 
now, to aid each other by endorsing notes or going on the 
bonds of others as a guarantee for their fidelity. In accord- 
ance with this prevailing custom, no one was more ready to 
respond to the requests of his friends than Mr. Dodd, though 
in many cases it resulted in serious and enlarged financial 
losses to him. Yet this did not quench the outflow of his 
liberality. He had the happy art of forgetting his losses, and 
continuing hopefully and serenely in new endeavors. His 
charity, exercised through the various philanthropic institu- 
tions of the city, was large and constant. Every good 
cause appealing to him met such financial support as he felt he 
could afford to give it. Like the patriarch of old, whose life 
had the seal of Divine approval, "he delivered the poor that 
cried and the fatherless, and him that had none to help him." 
Nothing so truly tests a man's character as the reverses and 
trials of our mortal life. Wealth conceals a man's defects 
from himself oft times, and it is only when stripped of his 
possessions that he comes to realize how much of character 
he really possesses. Through these testing vicissitudes of life, 
Mr. Dodd passed as gold is tried in the furnace. Adversity 
did not cast him down or rob him of his strength. He 
came out of his trials steadfast in faith and hope and with 
an unshaken determination to again resume the struggle. 
Hopefulness and courage were characteristic qualities with 
him. He did not mourn over losses of his past or bewail or 
grow bitter on account of the calamities that had fallen 
upon him. In spite of ingratitude and wrongs inflicted upon 
him, he cherished no bitterness toward his fellow men. 

Public spirited, he was ever interested in those enter- 
prises and institutions which had for their object the welfare 
of the community and the advancement of art and science. 
Gifted by nature with a taste for the beautiful, he had a 
remarkably clear and fine judgment of works of art and early 
began a most notable collection of paintings. He was specially 
the friend of young artists and there are not a few to-day 
who have reached eminence in their profession who are ready 
to acknowledge their indebtedness to the encouragement 
which he gave them and the aid which he secured for them 
in their struggling years. 

Trained in a God-fearing home, the faith of his childhood 
never forsook him. It had a profound influence alike in the 
development of his character and the shaping of his conduct. 
Though for a time it may have been obscured by the darkness 
of trial, yet in the later years of his life it came forth with 
renewed beauty and simplicity. For him, death had no 
terror, and though he loved life here, he welcomed the hour 
of his release from it with the assurance that he would enter 
into the inheritance which faith finds and secures in Jesus 
Christ, the saviour of sinners. By his death no ordinary loss 



has come to our community. A man of strength, integrity 
of purpose and courage, he stood for the things that are fair, 
just, honorable, and approved of good men. The service of 
his life was fruitful in benefits to the city in which he was a 
foremost citizen and whose welfare he sought. Rich in the 
esteem and affection of a multitude of friends, ripened in 
character by the experience of fourscore years and meriting 
the confidence of all who knew him, he has left with us a 
name to be honored and an example worthy of imitation. 



27 



The Story of the 
American Brake 

Wonderful as romance is the story of the Amer- 
ican Brake Company. As the rise of this St. Louis 
industry is traced it reveals the upbuilding qualities 
of Samuel M. Dodd. Moreover the story will pre- 
sent a striking instance where a business enterprise 
originally without merit was by dint of insistent 
effort ultimately carried to a successful issue. 

W. L. Card, a traveling auditor on the Wabash, 
came from Moberly to St. Louis thirty-odd years 
ago with his invention of an automatic brake. The 
railroad world was looking for something better than 
the man on the car roof twisting a wheel at the end 
of a rod. Several young men joined Card in the 
organization of a company which took the name of 
the inventor. Among them were David S. Ran- 
dolph who kept the English Kitchen, a famous res- 
taurant on Fifth street; Edward E. Chase, whose 
uncle was the senior partner in Chase & Cabot, the 
wholesale dry goods house; S. W. McMunn, a rela- 
tive and protege of George L. Joy. Albert Blair 
was the legal adviser of the young men and took a 
few shares of stock. The Card Company was capital- 
ized at $50,000 with a model of the patent as the 
chief asset. It had nothing to sell. After a time the 
stockholders became discouraged. Railroad officials 
were skeptical. Mr. Blair was appealed to for ad- 
vice. A reorganization was effected with increased 
capital in the form of treasury stock which was to be 
sold. Card's interest was bought by the others. 
The name of American Brake Company was chosen. 
A lawyer was employed to investigate the legal 

28 



merits of the patent to determine whether there was 
infringement on any other brake device. He came 
back from Washington with information that he 
had examined every one of the 600 or 700 brake 
patents on file; he had taken the opinion of an ex- 
pert; there was only one patent, that of two French- 
men, Lefevre and Dore, taken out earlier than Card's 
which might give trouble. The expert advised the 
St. Louisans to get hold of it. There appeared no 
other way of meeting the difficulty. Accordingly 
the Brake Company requested a St. Louis man then 
in Europe to visit Paris and look up Messrs. Lefevre 
and Dore and, if possible, buy their American patent. 
The inquiry revealed that M. Lefevre had died, 
but that M. Dore, his associate, still survived. 
In due time the patent was purchased and the St. 
Louis promoters felt greatly relieved; they believed 
that so far as the patent rights were concerned they 
stood on solid ground. Then the campaign for 
capital and for tests was renewed. One day Dwight 
Durkee was invited by Albert Blair to look at the 
model which under the practiced fingers of Chase 
worked to a charm. 

"My! Isn't that fine," the venerable capitalist 
commented. But the next day he said to Mr. Blair, 
"I've retired from business. My working days are 
over. Do you know General John B. Gray? Well 
he's just closed up the affairs of the Exchange Bank 
successfully. I think he might like to take hold of 
this. If he does he has friends who have confidence 
in his judgment and who would put in capital." 

General Gray saw the model and studied it. He 
talked with Samuel M. Dodd, A. W. Soper, William 
H. Waters, W. F. Gauss and perhaps two or three 
others. These men were impressed with Gray's 
opinion and advanced a little money. They told 

29 



Gray to go ahead with a practical trial of the brake 
on a train of cars, saying that if the brake worked 
well and stopped the train they would raise $20,000 
to begin the manufacture. 

Chase, Joseph Shippen who had become interested 
and Blair went to Chicago to present the proposi- 
tion before railroad men. They had laid the basis for 
negotiations by correspondence with the Pullman 
and the Eastern Illinois people. Robert T. Lincoln 
who had been at Harvard with Mr. Blair manifested 
a good deal of interest in the patent and gave a 
luncheon which some of the Pullman officials at- 
tended. Shippen took up the subject with President 
Huidekoper of the Eastern Illinois and got a promise 
to equip twenty coal cars with the device for trial. 
The three young men came back to St. Louis and 
reported to the other stockholders. Chase had been 
negotiating previously with Captain Rogers of the 
Frisco. The two lived at the Lafayette Park Hotel, 
then a popular family institution on Mississippi 
avenue, but since burned. When Captain Rogers 
heard of the Eastern Illinois arrangement he said to 
Chase, "I'll do that for you." The Huidekoper plan 
was cancelled, a train on the Frisco was equipped 
and the trial took place at Dixon Hill, one of the 
hardest grades on the line. The stockholders and 
several railroad officials went out to see the trial. 
Down Dixon Hill the train thundered. At the 
appointed spot the engineer put on his locomotive 
brake; the freight cars one by one bumped forward; 
as each one pressed on the preceding car the patent 
brake clicked and was set on the wheels. "Buffer 
brakes" they were called. Railroad men of 1912 
smile as they recall the principle which was deemed 
so promising in 1882. The principle was that when 
the brake on the locomotive was set and speed was 

30 






reduced the impact of the following car set the 
buffer brakes in rapid succession from the front to 
the rear of the train. Then when the engine started 
ahead and the coupling was let out its full length 
the brakes were released. The mechanical arrange- 
ment worked automatically. It seemed to do very 
well with ten or twelve cars and even with twenty 
when the conditions were such as produced uniformly 
the impact and the release. 

The promoters were enthusiastic over the ex- 
periments on Dixon Hill. They began to prepare 
for manufacture and installation on an extensive 
scale. There was a market for stock. Railroad 
officials showed much interest. They said that if 
the company had what the trials seemed to prove, 
a capital of $2,000,000 would not be too much for 
the business. Figuring on the cost demonstrated 
that the buffer brakes could be put on for $9 a car 
and could be sold to the railroads for $15 a car at 
fine profit. 

About that time Captain Rogers gave the Amer- 
ican Brake people some information that was en- 
tirely new to them. He said that there was a 
National Railway Association, the members of which 
could not accept and put in use any patent until its 
legality had been passed upon by the association's 
lawyer who was George R. Pay son of Chicago. 

"Give me the papers," suggested Captain Rogers, 
"and I will send them to Mr. Pay son." 

In the course of a few weeks Mr. Payson reported 
that he could not approve the Card patent. He gave 
as the reason that there existed another patent for 
a like device dating prior to that of Card's. He ex- 
pressed the opinion it would not be safe for any rail- 
road to adopt the American buffer brake. The prior 
patent had been taken out by Edward P. Vining of 

31 



Grand Rapids. Then the officers and promoters got 
busy with the new difficulty. They discovered that 
the Vining patent had been issued in 1870 and ten 
days later than the Lefevre and Dore devices which 
had already been acquired by the American Brake 
people. When this was laid before Mr. Payson he 
replied, "That is true, but Mr. Vining may be able 
to prove he was the earlier inventor if not the earlier 
patentee." 

It is a long story of the negotiations between the 
St. Louisans and Vining who was at that time gen- 
eral freight agent of the Union Pacific and located in 
Omaha. Mr. Chase, who was a good deal of a dip- 
lomat, adopted the role of a horse trader and called 
upon Mr. Vining with the suggestion that if he 
could buy the patent cheap he might use it in some 
kind of a trade. In the course of his talk he looked 
around and saw a stenographer taking down all that 
he was saying; he lost his nerve. 

Business with the American Brake Company 
dragged on until midsummer of 1881 when Gen. 
Gray persuaded Albert Blair to take up the matter 
with Vining. Mr. Blair went at negotiations squarely 
but it was not until the spring of 1882 that terms 
mutually satisfactory were reached. By that time 
an important decision in another patent case had 
given the American Brake people an advantage. The 
purport of that decision was that the re-issue of a 
patent expanding the claims must be obtained within 
two years of the date of the original issue. The 
effect of this was to cut down thousands of expanded 
patents taken out after patentees had discovered 
other inventions whereby their original claims might 
be improved. Vining came to St. Louis. He had 
interested Jay Gould and Sidney Dillon in his in- 
vention and was represented by George H. Christie, 

32 



attorney. After much negotiation the deal was made 
whereby the American Brake Company bought the 
Vining patent for #500 cash, #10,000 payable in one, 
two, three, four and five years, and 350 shares of 
stock. 

Once more the St. Louis enterprise boomed. Col. 
Soper moved to New York and brought to bear 
upon his railroad friends the merits of the buffer 
brake. The New York Central people, Pullman, 
Sage, General Dodge and others in the East became 
interested. In the West Mr. Talmage of the Wabash 
gave the American brake a trial. But there was a 
great deal of trouble in the brake operation. George 
H. Poor, a mechanician of great skill and an in- 
ventor of ability, came into the American Brake 
Company and worked upon the buffer brake. He 
succeeded in simplifying the operation materially. 
And Mr. Poor did more than that. He invented an 
engine brake which proved to be of great value and 
which for several years gave the company the basis 
of profitable manufacture. This engine brake was 
so applied that the pressure on all of the wheels of 
the engine was equalized. It was a great improve- 
ment. The Baldwin Locomotive people recognized 
the value of the power engine brake and ordered 
from the St. Louis company every month. 

Through 1883, 1884 and 1885 the American Brake 
Company wrestled with its problem of buffer brakes. 
Dennis P. Slattery during a portion of that time was 
the president and Edward Leigh was the secretary. 
About 1885 Samuel M. Dodd was persuaded to take 
the presidency rather against his inclination, but 
Col. Soper said to him, "Sam, I want you to help 
us out." All through his life it had been character- 
istic of Mr. Dodd to go to the aid of business as- 
sociates when they most needed him. After this 

33 



change the mechanical talent was increased and the 
work upon the physical difficulties of the buffer 
brake continued. One day, in looking up proceed- 
ings of railroad organizations in other countries, 
Albert Blair came upon a discussion of the Guerin 
brake in the account of a British association meeting 
as far back as 1859. Before that association an 
eminent engineer had described the Guerin brake, 
basing what he had to say upon a report the pre- 
vious year by the Commissioner of Bridges and Rail- 
roads of France. Mr. Blair obtained that report 
and learned that the brake acted precisely on the 
principle of the Card brake, the Lefevre and Dore 
brake and the Vining brake and had been tried out 
■on French railroads previous to 1858. He showed 
the report to General Gray who threw up his hands 
and exclaimed, "My God! Blair, what fools we are." 
The St. Louisans had been devoting their time and 
capital for six or seven years to the development of 
a principle which had been tried out abroad and for- 
gotten by a past generation of railroad men. 



34 



Samuel M. Dodd and 
George Westinghouse 

In the summer of 1885 the American Brake Com- 
pany equipped a train with the buffer brakes and 
sent it through the country to a number of cities 
for exhibition trials. The train which was supplied 
by the Wabash consisted of a locomotive, caboose 
and passenger car and about twenty coal cars loaded 
with coal. The brakes had been thoroughly pre- 
pared. The exhibitions included Chicago, Cleveland, 
Buffalo, Albany, Boston and New York. Mr. Poor 
was in charge. These exhibitions as in the earlier 
tests did fairly well on level tracks. But the reports 
from practical operation continued unsatisfactory. 
For example, sometimes cattle in a stock car, startled 
by a passing object, suddenly surge to one side of 
the car, thereby tipping slightly the car body. 
It was discovered that such a movement would 
occasionally cause the brake lever to drop into posi- 
tion for setting the brakes and so prevent the engineer 
from backing the train. The engineer would look 
out of the cab and make effort after effort, but the 
train would not back. Then the "brakey" would 
take the coal pick and crawl under the cattle cars and 
smash the buffer brake before the wheels would 
turn. Gradually some of those interested in the 
American Brake Company were coming to the con- 
clusion that the buffer brake was a delusion. In 
1886 was given the crushing blow. Railroad officials 
announced a commission to conduct a test of freight 
train brakes in competition at Burlington, Iowa. 
At that time six companies were trying to solve the 
brake problem. The Master Car Builders Association 

35 



appointed the experts. Godfrey W. Rhodes, super- 
intendent of the Burlington system was chairman. 
Trains of fifty cars were loaded and tried under 
rigid conditions as to distance and speed with the 
various brakes. Mr. Poor made ready the American 
Brake train. President Dodd, Col. Soper, Mr. Blair 
and the other officers went to Burlington to witness 
the results. The Westinghouse air brake people were 
there. The Mansfield, Ohio, Company was repre- 
sented. A Canada company put on a train. As a 
result the commission declared that not one of the 
competing brakes was satisfactory. The length of 
the train ruined the prospects of the buffer brake. 
When the locomotive brake was put on and one car 
after another pounded against its predecessor, the im- 
pact by the 50th car was almost as bad as a destruc- 
tive collision. It was worth a man's life to be on that 
car when it came against the 49th. The Westing- 
house air brake failed to work satisfactorily because 
it was not applied instantaneously to all the cars. 
The result on the rear end of the train was approxi- 
mately that of the buffer brake. It took too much 
time for the air to reach and set the brake on the 
rear cars. As the front of the train slowed the rear 
plunged forward with such shocks as to damage cars 
and injure freight. The defects made themselves 
apparent. Wellington, the expert writer on the Rail- 
road Gazette turned to somebody and said, "It 
appears as if Col. Flad's idea is the correct one." 

Col. Henry Flad of St. Louis had invented what 
was known as the Mallinckrodt brake, the idea of 
which was to reach the brakes by electricity and 
set them so that they acted almost simultaneously. 
Albert Blair heard the remark and when he got home 
he took up with Mr. Dodd the proposition of acquir- 
ing the Mallinckrodt brake from Col. Flad. 

36 



Soon thereafter they instituted negotiations with 
Col. Flad and his banker to buy the Mallinckrodt 
patents, but unfortunately the negotiations were 
suffered to lag. Mr. Blair was compelled to be 
absent fron the city for sixty days. On his return 
he was greatly chagrined to find that an agent of the 
Westinghouse people had quietly dropped in and 
bought the desired patents. This failure to capture 
what were considered controlling devices in the air 
brake business was keenly felt by the officers of the 
American Brake Company, but the course of brake 
evolution was soon to relieve their chagrin and pro- 
duce the added satisfaction that the handsome sum 
paid Col. Flad for the Mallinckrodt patent had been 
supplied by their competitor and not out of their 
own meager treasury. 

In the meantime George Westinghouse, seeing the 
defect in the application of the air brake, remained at 
Burlington three weeks experimenting and finally 
invented the improvement of the quick acting brake 
action so that by his process all the brakes were set in 
more rapid succession. At the series of trials the 
next year, in 1887, Mr. Westinghouse had overcome 
the difficulty with his air brake. 

At this crisis Mr. Dodd's earnestness and interest 
increased many fold as it always did when the emer- 
gency came. The force of experts at work in the 
experimental room of the American Brake Company 
was increased by the addition of Guels, Wahlert 
and Dwight Furniss. 

Mr. Blair advised that the American company 
abandon the buffer brake principle and enter on 
extensive experiments with new forms of air brakes. 
President Dodd adopted this policy and inspired the 
experts to increased efforts. He advised that no 
more time be wasted on the appliances which had 

37 



proven impracticable. He urged that the inventive 
genius at the command of the company carefully 
avoid any encroachment on existing patents and 
look in other directions for a solution of the brake 
problem. All of the experts worked for months on 
designs of quick acting triple valves as the principle 
of the new brake. In the laboratory were arranged 
fifty cylinders all connected up as if in service. To 
realize just how each expert's ideas would work these 
experiments went on for eighteen months until Guels 
perfected a design entirely different from the Westing- 
house. It operated within one-tenth of a second 
as quickly as the Westinghouse air brake. The 
latter had been improved until it would set all 
the brakes on a train of fifty freight cars so 
quickly as to cause no damage from shock. Prac- 
tically, Guel's brake would do about as well. 
It was put on the Ferguson accommodation of 
the Wabash as the first practical trial and worked 
all right. Having, as was believed, acquired a 
practical air brake of novel design and one for which 
strong patents could be obtained, the American 
Brake Company laid plans looking to the manu- 
facture and sale of air brakes. Strong interests in 
New York were enlisted in the company's behalf, 
but other influences were active by which on June 
6th, 1888, an alliance with the Westinghouse Air 
Brake Company of Pittsburg was effected, an arrange- 
ment which ten years later resulted in the outright 
purchase by the Pittsburg Company of the entire 
capital stock of the American Brake Company. 
The American Brake Company developed the 
manufacture of locomotive brakes and the Westing- 
house Company manufactured freight car brakes. 
Edward L. Adreon, who had been comptroller of the 
City of St. Louis and who had joined the American 

38 



Brake Company as secretary, became in 1888, the 
business head of the St. Louis concern, while Mr. 
Poor continued in supervision of the mechanical 
department. In all of these negotiations Mr. Dodd 
was the chief representative of the St. Louis in- 
terests. When the meager resources and small 
mechanical merits which underlay the efforts of the 
American Brake Company for the first nine years 
of its existence are considered, Mr. Dodd and his 
associates must be accorded great credit for the 
ultimate success of the enterprise. Mr. Dodd went 
into the reorganization as a member of the board; 
H. H. Westinghouse became president and Mr. 
Adreon vice-president and general manager of the 
American Brake Company. 

From 1888 the company's plant grew into one of 
the great industries of St. Louis. A joyous realiza- 
tion of his effort and faith as the head of the com- 
pany and of what the industry meant in the up- 
building of St. Louis came to Mr. Dodd on Trans- 
portation Day at the World's Fair of 1904. Officials 
of the American Brake Company in the parade of 
that occasion headed a marching column of 1500 
St. Louis employes uniformed in white trousers, blue 
waists and Chinese straw hats. 

When news of the death reached him George 
Westinghouse wired Vice-President Adreon his trib- 
ute to Mr. Dodd as one "whose friendship I esteemed 
most highly." Herman Westinghouse wrote of Mr. 
Dodd's " lovable character" and said, "I shall 
always think of him as representing the finest type 
of an honorable gentleman." Officers and directors 
associated with Mr. Dodd in the American Brake 
Company were H. H. Westinghouse, president; E. L. 
Adreon, vice-president; Albert Blair, R. E. Adreon, 
A. L. Humphrey, John F. Miller and C. C. Ziegler, 

39 



secretary. With a rising vote they united in this 
"testimony to the great services he rendered the 
company in the critical day of its existence, to his 
capable and wise leadership, and to the gracious 
qualities which endeared him to his friends." 

"Age sat with decent grace upon his visage, 
And worthily became his silvery locks; 
He wore the mask of many years well spent, 
Of virtue, truth well tried, and wise experience." 

Mr. Dodd became president of the American Brake Com- 
pany in the year 1887, six years after the company was 
organized. At that time the business of the company was 
small and its capital meager. The mechanical inventions 
upon which the founders of the company had counted so 
much had not fulfilled expectations and there was no end of 
difficulties encountered in making them satisfactory in serv- 
ice. A president was needed who could supply credit, wisely 
choose men and command confidence in railroad circles. 

Mr. Dodd did not seek the position; indeed, was reluctant 
to accept it. Two or three close friends of his had previously 
become interested in the enterprise and they felt they needed 
such a man to save the situation. It was principally at their 
request that he consented to do so — a characteristic act on 
his part; that is, to go to the help of friends in distress. 

His coming into the company imparted credit to the enter- 
prise and renewed the courage of all connected with it. It 
did still another thing of value; it secured the respectful 
consideration of men influential in railroad management. 

Mr. Dodd was neither a mechanic nor an inventor and 
made no pretensions to skill in solving the mechanical prob- 
lems which confronted the company but he did possess a 
sound discretion as to business methods and was wise in the 
choice and management of men. 

During the earlier developments there were many dis- 
couraging and costly failures in the efforts to produce satis- 
factory locomotive and car brakes, such indeed as would 
ordinarily be disastrous to such an enterprise, but in Mr. 
Dodd the company possessed a lion-hearted leader, and 
always when confronted with the cold facts he took coun- 
sel of common sense and courage and without faultfinding 
straightway abandoned discredited devices and authorized a 
new line of endeavor. In doing so he was careful to admonish 
his mechanical experts not to trespass upon the rights of 
others but to keep clearly within new territory. Stimulated 
by such a spirit the company profiting by the errors of the 
past developed satisfactory driver brakes and was intelli- 
gently exploiting the air brake field. 

It was at this time the Westinghouse Air Brake Company, 
then and now the leading manufacturer of air brakes, was 
induced to consider the American Brake Company situation. 

40 



Negotiations between the St. Louis company and the Pitts- 
burg company ensued, which resulted in a contract and 
lease, under date of June 8, 1888, by which the American 
Brake Company became affiliated with the Westinghouse Air 
Brake Company for a long term of years on very liberal 
terms. Ten years later the second negotiation occurred 
whereby a union of the two companies was established and 
the shareholders of the St. Louis company placed upon an 
equitable footing with those of the Pittsburg company. 

In all these matters Mr. Dodd personally took a leading 
part in behalf of his shareholders. Between himself and Mr. 
George Westinghouse, president of the Pittsburg company, 
although representing distinct interests, an attitude of kind- 
ness and considerate fair dealing was mutually assumed from 
the first and maintained throughout. It is no disparagement 
of the merits of the properties of the American Brake Com- 
pany at that time that one strong and legitimate motive 
which actuated the president of the Pittsburg company to 
make liberal terms with the St. Louis company was the fact 
that by so doing he was thereby securing not only Mr. Dodd's 
hearty co-operation, but that of Mr. Dodd's numerous friends 
in the railroad field as well. 

The foregoing recital exhibits in outline the principal events 
in the history of the American Brake Company in which Mr. 
Dodd figured in a prominent and useful way. It does not, 
however, set out the numerous instances wherein his wisdom, 
courage, good judgment, fair dealing and kindness were 
applied to promote the welfare of others. His intimates can 
relate many such circumstances. Here and there among all 
sorts and conditions of men connected not only with the 
American Brake Company but connected with numerous 
other large business concerns in which Mr. Dodd formed a 
leading part are to be found willing witnesses to testify to 
his magnanimity. We, long his associates in this company, 
greatly lament the loss of his noble companionship. 

"Just and upright wert thou! Artemidorus! 
Fare thee well! even among the shades." 



41 



A Pioneer in Electrical 
Development 

When Mr. Dodd, Mr. Blair and Colonel Soper had 
completed the contract of affiliation with the West- 
inghouse Air Brake Company in June, 1888, they 
gave part of a day to a tour through the electrical 
works at Pittsburg. They were escorted by Guido 
Pantaleoni. The inspection was a matter of pride 
on the part of the Westinghouse people and of 
curiosity by the St. Louisans. In the course of the 
trip it developed that Mr. Pantaleoni had visited 
St. Louis recently looking for capitalists to take up 
electric lighting here. The negotiations had gone 
so far that Dwight Tredway who was at that time 
running the Suburban street railway and the amuse- 
ment place known as Kensington Garden had be- 
come interested. The garden was lighted by elec- 
tricity from a little plant called the Metropolitan 
which was managed by Samuel B. Pike. Before 
they left Pittsburg Mr. Dodd and his associates had 
concluded to give the possibilities of electrical light 
investment at St. Louis serious thought. Mr. Blair, 
with the encouragement of Mr. Dodd, undertook an 
investigation. He made the acquaintance of Herbert 
A. Wagner, a young electrician, who had attended 
the Stevens Institute at Hoboken and who had ob- 
tained some practical experience in the Westinghouse 
plant. Wagner gave Blair some lessons on the sub- 
ject of electrical lighting, then in its infancy. The 
first result was the taking of an option by Mr. Dodd 
and Mr. Tredway with the Westinghouse people to 
organize a company in St. Louis, based on the West- 
inghouse patents. Mr. Blair represented Mr. Dodd 

42 



and Mr. Pike represented Mr. Tredway in the option, 
but St. Louis capital was not ready to invest in 
electrical lighting. While Mr. Dodd induced Rich- 
ard C. Kerens and J. C. Van Blarcom to join him he 
could not get enough other encouragement to go on. 
The first option was allowed to expire. A short time 
afterwards Mr. Dodd who never gave up when his 
interest was fairly aroused took another option 
through Edward L. Adreon. Mr. Dodd and his 
associates raised $200,000 and Mr. Westinghouse 
put in $50,000 to organize the Missouri Electric 
Lighting and Power Company. About the time the 
company was ready to proceed to practical oper- 
ations the papers gave Edison credit for the inven- 
tion of the electric lamp. That alarmed the St. 
Louis investors and some withdrew. The Westing- 
house hope was the Sawyer- Mann lamp patented in 
1878, the year before Edison began work on his 
lamp, it was claimed. A great trial came on at Pitts- 
burg. Justice Bradley presided. The decision sus- 
tained the claim that Edison was the first inventor. 
Westinghouse had succeeded in getting the lighting 
contract for the Chicago World's Fair with what was 
called the stopper lamp. The Thomson-Houston 
people who organized the General Electric had 
given an option to several St. Louis capitalists, but 
the latter had not developed it. Mr. Dodd was 
much concerned. As in the case of the American 
Brake Company, the more hazardous the situation 
the more in earnest he became. In order to satisfy 
himself about the merits of the electrical patent war 
which was going on between the Westinghouse and 
the Thomson-Houston people, Mr. Dodd sent Wag- 
ner to investigate the stopper lamp. Wagner was 
unable to pursue his investigation in a satisfactory 
manner. Then Mr. Dodd said, "I've got to 

43 



know what I am about, Blair. Let's you and I go 
down and see George Westinghouse." Mr. Westing- 
house was courteous. He not only showed Mr. Dodd 
all that was being done in the experimental labora- 
tory, but telegraphed his patent attorney to come 
out and go over the legal situation. Before Mr. Dodd 
left Pittsburg he got from Mr. Westinghouse a guar- 
antee for himself and his St. Louis associates against 
loss. An order for lamps was put in and the St. 
Louisans came home feeling that their interests were 
protected. Later came more electric light litigation 
with a St. Louis branch to it. The General Electric 
lawyers brought suit against the Columbia Lamp 
Company, then in business on Olive street. 

"Well, they have begun in our territory," com- 
mented Mr. Dodd and he made ready to fight for 
his rights if necessary. The court refused to enjoin 
temporarily the Columbia and no more St. Louis suits 
were brought by the General Electric. There was 
an end to the war and the St. Louis feature of gen- 
eral peace was the consolidation of Dodd's Missouri 
Electric Lighting and Power Company with the 
Municipal, which represented the General Electric 
side. Thus was formed the Missouri-Edison. 

But local trouble of an entirely different character 
set in with no end of it. The Keyes ordinance com- 
pelled the putting of electric wires under ground. 
Then there was a suit for taxes, and in 1896 the St. 
Louis cyclone destroyed property to the value of 
$150,000. Eventually the Missouri-Edison was 
merged in the Union Electric Light & Power Com- 
pany. 

When after a long drawn out controversy he 
finally abandoned the public electric lighting field 
in St. Louis, Mr. Dodd manifested no bitterness. 
He had made a clean fight. He said to a friend: 

"I could have gotten the contract with the city 
if I had given some fees. But I don't want to do 
anything of that kind." 



44 



Public Spirit vs. 
Private Interest 

The municipal records of St. Louis tell how Mr. 
Dodd stood in a conflict between public spirit and 
private interest. A dozen years ago the city faced 
a lighting crisis. The Missouri-Edison company had 
taken over the Suter company which had a contract 
to light the city at a very low rate. That contract 
was nearing its end. The Missouri-Edison people 
were supposed to be planning for a better contract. 
Daily papers were warning the public that at the 
end of the existing contract the city would be at the 
mercy of the Missouri-Edison. The master spirit 
in the situation was Mr. Dodd. At that time he was 
in the habit of visiting the St. Louis Club, then on 
Twenty-ninth street and Lucas avenue, to find mild 
exercise and healthful recreation in French pool with 
Colonel George E. Leighton and other friends. W. R. 
Hodges, at present city auditor, was a member of the 
city council. He met Mr. Dodd at the club house 
one evening and said to him: 

"Uncle Sam ! I want to talk with you about this 
lighting question. Are you going to hold up the city 
if a new contract isn't made by the time the old one 
is out?" 

"Captain," said Mr. Dodd in his leisurely, pleas- 
ant tone, "I never held up anybody. I have lived 
in St. Louis since I was a boy. My friends live here. 
I'm as loyal to St. Louis as anybody can be. You 
can say for me that if the new contract is not made 
when the old contract expires the Missouri-Edison 
will light the city at the present rate until a new 
contract is made." 

45 



"Would you have any objection to put that in 
writing," said the councilman. 

By way of answer Mr. Dodd sat down at a table, 
penned the line and signed it. At the next meeting 
of the council Captain Hodges read the pledge. 

The old contract ran out and the negotiations for 
a new arrangement were on. Mr. Dodd and Captain 
Hodges had another meeting. This time the former 
sought it. 

"What are you going to do with the lighting bill?" 
Mr. Dodd asked. 

"That has troubled me a good deal," the council- 
man said. "You know I would go as far to oblige 
you as any man living, but I have to tell you you are 
not going to get that contract. We've got to have a 
smaller unit for the city lighting and a great many 
more of them. I'm going to vote to change the 
system." 

Mr. Dodd sat half a minute without speaking. 
The loss of the contract meant a good deal to him 
and the other men who were in the company. Then 
he got up, came over to Captain Hodges and put 
his hand on his shoulder, saying: 

"Old man ! Do your duty and never mind Dodd." 

Some time afterwards Mr. Dodd, commenting on 
the long drawn out lighting controversy with the 
city, said to a friend: 

"Hodges has cost me a half a million dollars since 
he's been in the council, but I like him better than 
ever." 

"Among our public spirited citizens I do not recall 
any one who surpassed Mr. Dodd," said Dr. Nic- 
colls, "He was without personal ambition, yet he 
had a great desire to advance the city's interest. 
He was an ardent Republican, but if the Democratic 
candidate for a local office was the better man Mr. 

46 



Dodd supported him. He gave liberally in support 
of his political principles, and never sought anything 
for himself. In several campaigns he could have 
been nominated for mayor for he was immensely 
popular, but would not consent." 

An instance of Mr. Dodd's devotion to the civic 
interests of St. Louis was his course as foreman of 
the grand jury more than forty years ago. Charles 
P. Johnson was circuit attorney at the time. The 
local administration was Republican. Notwithstand- 
ing his party affiliation, Mr. Dodd pushed the inves- 
tigation of Treasurer Susisky. Indictments were 
returned against the treasurer and his assistant. At 
that time two or three men stood foremost in the 
legal profession of this city for extraordinary success 
in criminal practice. From the grand jury room 
Foreman Dodd went directly to the office of one of 
these lawyers and retained him for the prosecution, 
paying from his own pocket the necessary fee of some 
hundreds of dollars to secure the service. The wis- 
dom of this action was seen before the end of the 
day when representatives of the indicted officials 
endeavored to employ the same counsel secured by 
Mr. Dodd. Subsequently public spirited citizens 
raised a fund and shared with Mr. Dodd the cost of 
the prosecution. The treasurer and his assistant 
were found guilty. 

"I remember well Mr. Dodd's activity in that 
grand jury investigation and prosecution more than 
forty years ago," Governor Johnson said, "and I 
recall that I was entirely willing to have that able 
assistance in the prosecution for the defense which 
afterwards broke down though it promised at first 
to be vigorous." 

Members of the St. Louis Club wished to honor 
Mr. Dodd. They were prompted by the sentiment 

47 



of affection for him as an associate and by a sense 
of obligation for his many years of substantial inter- 
est in the welfare of the organization. Mr. Dodd 
had been one of the founders of the club and had 
done much toward the location and building of the 
present club house. The members proposed to elect 
him president, but he declined to be considered, 
giving as his reason that he did not feel like assum- 
ing the responsibilities. They came back with this 
proposition. 

"Mr. Dodd, you know it is the custom to place in 
the club house the portraits of our presidents as 
they retire from office. We want your picture there. 
Let us elect you president and Rolla Wells vice- 
president. Mr. Wells is willing. He will take all of 
the burden from you. If you wish you can resign 
after you have held the office a short time. In this 
way we can carry out our purpose to place your 
portrait in the club house." 

"No, boys, that wouldn't be right," said Mr. Dodd, 
and he adhered firmly to his decision. 



48 



Rise of the 
Wagner Electric 

Samuel M. Dodd was a pioneer in more than one 
section of the electrical field of St. Louis. This 
generation of 1912 can hardly realize that the 
experimental stage of light and power by wire trans- 
mission was so recent as a quarter of a century ago. 
Edison had established his first central station for 
distribution of electric light in New York only half 
a dozen years earlier, and it was a small affair serving 
a few large buildings. 

Three years before Mr. Dodd organized his light- 
ing and power company and established the first 
alternating current plant in this city the American 
Street Railway Association met in St. Louis and after 
thorough discussion almost unanimously declared the 
use of electricity impracticable for moving street cars. 
The year that Mr. Dodd started his enterprise, the 
Broadway Street Railway Company of St. Louis after 
some experiments abandoned the idea of using elec- 
tricity and began to construct a cable system. The 
average citizen looked with strong prejudice upon the 
proposition to carry power on overhead wires. There 
was vigorous antagonism against anything stronger 
than that required for telegraph and telephone sys- 
tems. It was argued that wires carrying such cur- 
rent would kill the shade trees. The St. Louis 
papers printed predictions of correspondents that the 
spread of electricity in the air would cause sickness, 
especially nervous ailments. 

"It's the coming light," Mr. Dodd told his friends 
when he got back from Pittsburg. The coming was 
slow. Not only litigation delayed but mechanical 

49 



difficulties were encountered. One day Dr. Niccolls 
said to Mr. Dodd he was apprehensive electric light- 
ing would not succeed. 

"It will be too costly." 

"Oh, we'll get it," was the confident reply. 

In those days electricity for light and power was 
in the mysterious stage. Many inventors guarded 
rigidly against publicity. Electric factories were 
locked. Visitors were' barred. Once when Mr. Dodd 
sent Mr. Wagner to look into some matter about 
which the St. Louis company had a right to be in- 
formed, the young electrician was denied admission 
to the shop. Then Mr. Dodd went in person to gain 
the desired information. Individuals and companies 
dealing in electrical devices surrounded their busi- 
ness with secrecy. Fakers and unscrupulous pro- 
moters found a wide field in which to do the credu- 
lous. All through that period of alternate hope and 
doubt Mr. Dodd was foremost of St. Louisans with 
money who had faith in electric development. He 
steadily encouraged those who were experimenting 
honestly. Fred Schwedtman and Herbert A. Wag- 
ner, young and enthusiastic, got hold of a dynamo 
which failed to work and had been abandoned in a 
freight house. They tinkered with it until they had 
it in order and then sold it at a good price. Mr. Dodd 
advised them to start a small shop to do electrical 
repair work for at that stage of the industry the 
dynamos and kindred apparatus were getting out of 
order frequently through defects in the manufacture 
or through improper handling. 

While carrying on and developing the electric 
lighting Mr. Dodd was fostering and building up 
another electrical industry. Wagner had proven 
to be a very competent electrical expert. He had 
invented a fan motor on the alternating principle, 

50 



a fan that could be connected with the current which 
was in general use. The Wagner Electric Manufac- 
turing Company was incorporated with a capital of 
$25,000, the fan motor patent being put in at $6,000. 
Schwedtman was the foreman and Wagner with two 
or three other young fellows constituted the organ- 
ization. They had a hard time at the start. Their 
only customer for some time was the Missouri Elec- 
tric Lighting and Power Company. The Westing- 
house people rather objected to this. Mr. Dodd, 
however, finding that Wagner could make as satis- 
factory dynamos and other electrical apparatus as 
could be bought outside of St. Louis encouraged the 
home company. The Wagner people struggled along 
several years until one day Mr. Dodd proposed to 
increase the capital to $100,000, enlarge the plant 
and go into the electrical supply business. He put 
in Mr. Pike as secretary. The concern was moved 
to Eighteenth and Olive streets and later to Locust 
street. James W. Bell, J. C. Van Blarcom and Richard 
C. Kerens were among those who took stock in the 
company. The business increased but the profits 
did not make satisfactory showing. 

One day, while inquiring into the internal affairs 
of the company, Mr. Dodd remarked to one of the 
department heads: 

"Why is it we cannot make money in this business? 
I give you all the machinery you need and all the 
capital but you don't show results. What is the 
matter?" 

"We need a competent commercial man, who also 
has a grasp of factory conditions," was the answer. 

"Do you know such a man?" 

"Yes, we have a man who has grown up with the 
business, who I think is competent. His name is 

51 



Layman. He writes as if he knew what he was 
about." 

Mr. Layman was then in the east, taking care of 
a somewhat complex situation with an important 
eastern customer. Mr. Dodd called for recent 
correspondence with him and read it. As soon as 
he had finished, he took a pen and wrote: "I 
hereby appoint Mr. W. A. Layman in charge of 
the commercial business of the Wagner Electric 
Manufacturing Company," a step which led ulti- 
mately to the placing of Mr. Layman in executive 
charge of all departments of the business. 

It was another instance of Mr. Dodd's remarkable 
judgment in the selection of men. In explanation 
of his course Mr. Dodd simply said to the other 
directors, "I had to act." 

W. A. Layman was a graduate of a technical insti- 
tute in Indiana. He had been a newspaper man of 
some experience, had developed considerable taste 
for the electrical field, had come to St. Louis and 
had gone into the shop where Schwedtman found 
him adaptable and tried him in the commercial end 
of the business. The Wagner Electric Manufactur- 
ing Company developed rapidly under the new ad- 
ministration and became an industry in which Mr. 
Dodd during his last years took his greatest interest. 
It grew to a capitalization of $1,500,000, employed 
700 people and was putting out $1,800,000 in prod- 
ucts annually. 

When the directors of the Wagner placed upon 
their records the memorial of Mr. Dodd presented 
by Albert Blair they spoke of "the upbuilding of the 
Wagner Electric Manufacturing Company" as "the 
crowning achievement of his business career." The 
devotion of Mr. Dodd to this industry and the pride 

52 



he manifested in it undoubtedly justified this 
expression of his fellow-directors. The memorial 
concluded : 

No one of the several enterprise's to which he gave per- 
sonal direction was so weak and unpromising at the outset 
as was the Wagner Company. Its single patented device 
turned out to be valueless. The company was without work- 
ing capital. Its sole excuse for existence was the idea that 
St. Louis and the western country needed a manufacturing 
concern of that kind. The meritorious inventions now pos- 
sessed by the company are of subsequent acquisition. At 
that time the field of supply in electric commodities was 
largely covered by the same two great companies that at 
present occupy it. In patent matters they were leagued for 
offensive operations against trespassers. In industrial war- 
fare any competitor, especially if he be a weak beginner, is 
easily recognized as a trespasser. The result was that for 
fifteen years or more the progress of the Wagner Company in 
the manufacture and sale of its apparatus was attended with 
unremitting cannonade of patent suits. Patent suits to the 
right of it; patent suits to the left of it "volleyed and thun- 
dered," but the leader of the Wagner Company, unlike he 
of the Light Brigade, had not blundered, but continued to 
advance and finally achieved success and honorable recogni- 
tion from his competitors. To accomplish all this called for 
high talents of administration. While Mr. Dodd was not 
skilled in the electric art, he possessed superior judgment in 
choosing men and methods by which to solve problems and 
overcome difficulties. On the other hand, by reason of his 
sterling honesty of purpose, his calls for financial support 
were always readily responded to by directors and stock- 
holders. Truly Mr. Dodd possessed a genius for upbuilding. 

But the man, the personality, was even more admirable 
than the business leader. It is nobler to be a helper of men 
than to be an upbuilder of business enterprises. In his atti- 
tude towards charitable institutions and works of benevolence, 
Mr. Dodd was something more than the conventional alms- 
giver. There were a number of causes in which his interest 
was positive and animating. He really desired to have them 
not only sustained but increased in effective scope. Accord- 
ingly it was no hardship for him to make contributions to the 
Provident Association, the Mercantile Library, the Museum 
of Fine Arts and the Washington University. He took a special 
interest in the Young Women's Christian Association, and 
in response to that feeling a few years ago provided a habita- 
tion for the association by leasing to it a suitable building at 
a nominal rent. Moreover, there were churches and missions 
in the city whose financial officers for a good many years felt 
privileged to call upon Mr. Dodd for pecuniary aid in cases of 
emergency. He made numerous individual benefactions in 
the course of his career, many to his kindred, many to other 

53 



people. Money aid to impecunious people does not always 
constitute the highest kind of charity. If Mr. Dodd's kind 
heart at times caused him to err in the matter of giving, his 
bounty certainly never grew weary in responding to calls of 
a worthy character. The present time is hardly the proper 
occasion to go into details as to his personal benefactions. 
It will redound, however, to his credit as a discriminating 
giver to say that two artists of national renown remember 
him as a good friend in their early struggles; likewise more 
than one teacher, and more than one successful practitioner 
in professional lines acknowledge kindnesses bestowed by 
him. So we say, Upbuilder in business, but still more, a 
Helper of men, was he not? . 

"So has he lived that when the sun 
Of his existence sinks in night, 
Memorials sweet of mercies done 

Will shrine his name in memory's light, 
And the blest seed he scattered bloom 
A hundred-fold in years to come." 



54 



The Oldest 
Bank Director 

"Our friend, counselor and fellow-director" — the 
members of the board of the National Bank of Com- 
merce called Samuel M. Dodd. They voiced tribute 
to his "honesty, ability and personal magnetism" in 
these words of the official expression placed upon the 
record : 

He was one of nature's noblemen. It will be difficult to 
estimate the value of his influence in the growth of the insti- 
tution of which we were his junior associates. 

His judgment of men was wonderfully acute. His counsels 
were ever listened to with respect; his advice was sought by 
those of our fellow-citizens who recognized his ripe exper- 
ience. Trust and fidelity were stamped on his every action, 
and his personality was most gentle and urbane. 

His intercourse with his fellow men was conspicuously free 
from any coarseness in speech, and his bearing was that of a 
gentleman. We shall miss him in many ways, in the home, 
the board-room and the place of worship. 

When Mr. Dodd attended his last meeting with 
the directors of the National Bank of Commerce he 
sat at the right hand of President Edwards. That 
by virtue of seniority had been his place in several 
administrations of the bank's affairs. Mr. Dodd 
had been a director when the institution was known 
by its first corporate title, the St. Louis Building and 
Savings Association, his service dating back to 1859. 
He was not only the oldest member of the National 
Bank of Commerce board but he was the bank 
director of longest service in St. Louis. Before he 
became a director the St. Louis Buildings and Sav- 
ings Association had $8,500 capital stock, $338.36 
surplus and $29,387.78 deposits. In the fifty-three 
years of his connection with the board, the insti- 
tution grew to $10,000,000 capital stock, $2,000,000 

55 



surplus and $53,500,000 deposits. Mr. Dodd was a 
director under the successive administrations of 
Marshall Brotherton, Felix Coste, Henry S. Reed, 
C. B. Burnham, W. H. Thompson, J. C. Van Blarcom 
and B. F. Edwards. 

Next to Mr. Dodd at the board table sat James W. 
Bell who had been in business on Main street at the 
same time the former was. There were bonds of 
close association between these two men. Away 
back in the early sixties, Mr. Dodd and Mr. Bell 
locked the front doors of their business houses at 
three o'clock in the afternoon and spent the rest of 
the day with muskets on their shoulders. They were 
Union men enrolled in the same military company. 
They drilled in preparation to take the field if the 
Confederates approached within striking distance of 
the city. Their colonel was George E. Leighton, 
and their company commander was Captain E. P. 
Rice. 

During half a century Mr. Dodd and Mr. Bell 
were associated in good works. In the early days 
one of their favorite pastimes was to call on their 
friends to join in furnishing a turkey dinner for the 
Home of the Friendless, more commonly known as 
the "Old Ladies Home," which has for many years 
occupied a quaint stone structure in a large garden 
on South Broadway. The last collaboration of these 
two veteran philanthropists was in October of last 
year shortly before Mr. Dodd was confined with 
fatal illness. This took the form of a considerable 
sum of money sent to support the Young Men's 
Christian Association work along the Yukon in 
Alaska. Two other National Bank of Commerce 
directors, President Ben. F. Edwards and John A. 
Holmes shared in this contribution. 

Mr. Bell cannot recall that Mr. Dodd ever refused 

56 



an appeal. He is quite sure his old friend never 
rejected any suggestion of a contribution which he 
made to him. Both of them were long time admirers 
of the work which Thomas Morrison carried on. 
They knew him as "Tom" Morrison from the days 
when he was a drayman on the levee. They stood 
by him when Mr. Morrison carried on the Biddle 
Market Sunday School which was famed throughout 
the country. Mr. Morrison came to them regularly. 

"Whenever Tom came around," said Mr. Bell, 
"Uncle Sam would throw up both hands in mock 
surrender as if he was facing a highwayman and 
would call out, 'How much.' And then the con- 
tribution would follow." 

One of the stories of Mr. Dodd's generosity is that 
of the church debt lifting in a town where he was a 
stranger. With two friends who had been marooned 
over Sunday like himself Mr. Dodd attended service. 
That service had been set apart for a final effort to 
pay off a mortgage about to be foreclosed on the 
church. Of this the three visitors had no warning. 
They sat through the sermon and heard the desperate 
situation explained by the minister. In response to 
the appeal they made their contributions when the 
basket was passed around. Then they called one 
of the trustees and asked him to see how much 
was still needed to clear off the debt. The trustee 
reported. Mr. Dodd and his two friends each paid 
one-third of the amount necessary. The minister 
was overwhelmed; he could hardly express his grati- 
tude. The members of the church crowded about 
the strangers and shook their hands vigorously as 
they voiced their thanks. 



57 



The Race of 
Dodds 

Whence came the amiability of manner and tenac- 
ity of purpose so unusually combined? Mr. Dodd 
was gentle in speech and manner. Harsh words 
never fell from his lips. But when his purpose was 
formed it never relaxed. The father died while 
Samuel M. Dodd was young. A sketch of him, pre- 
served by Henry P. Dodd says his "disposition was 
mild and amiable and he led a blameless life." The 
children were reared by their mother whom Dr. 
Niccolls describes as "a woman of wonderful ener- 
gy." Alary Condit Dodd lived to be eighty. It was 
said of her that she "retained so entirely the bright- 
ness and sympathy of her youth that visitors to the 
younger members of her hospitable home always 
sought the drawing room where she was usually to be 
found as her conversation never failed of being merry, 
instructive and entertaining." 

"She was the sweetest old lady that ever I knew," 
was one of the tributes paid to her when she died. 

Samuel Morris Dodd was descended from Daniel, 
the oldest son of David Dod, the Branford, Con- 
necticut, pilgrim of 1646. David Dod 2nd went with 
the colony to Newark as the genealogical poet nar- 
rates. His youngest son was John who married 
Elizabeth Lampson. John 2nd was the oldest son 
of John and Elizabeth (Lampson) Dod. He was 
known as "John, the assessor," to distinguish him 
from his father and a cousin, John Dod. He held 
this office in what is now the county of Essex for 
many years. The oldest son of John 2nd and Jane 

58 



(Smith) Dod was Eleazer, who married Abigail Har- 
rison. The home was in Dodd Town. The numer- 
ous branches of the family about this time began to 
spell the name "Dodd". Stephen was the oldest son 
of Eleazer and Abigail (Harrison) Dodd. He was 
born Sept. 26, 1786, and died Sept. 12, 1869. He 
married Mary Condit and his sister Lydia became 
the wife of Cheveril Condit. The Condits were of 
one of the oldest and best known families of New 
Jersey. Many alliances occurred between the Dodds 
and the Condits. The children of Stephen and Mary 
(Condit) Dodd were: ' 

1. Stephen Harrison, Jan. 7, 1828. 

2. Viner Vanzandt, Dec. 27, 1829. 

3. Samuel Morris, June 3, 1832. 

4. Abial Monroe, March 25, 1834. 

5. Henry Pierson, June 28, 1836. 

6. Harriet Pierson, Jan. 26, 1839. 

7. Ira Condit, June 26, 1841. 

8. Marcus Dixon, Jan. 17, 1844. 

One cousin of Samuel M. Dodd was Eleazer Mon- 
roe Dodd whose zeal in the discharge of his duties as 
a city official of Newark during the cholera epidemic 
of 1854 cost him his life. Another went down into 
a cistern in the attempt to rescue two persons and 
was suffocated by the foul air; he was also "Samuel 
Morris" Dodd. Altruism has been a marked char- 
acteristic of the Dodds. A third cousin, Captain 
Samuel Dodd, fell mortally wounded at the head of 
his company leading a charge- near Fredericksburg 
in 1863. To the thousands of Orange people who 
came to do honor, the chaplain said, "There was 
neither an officer nor a man in the regiment who did 
not feel that in his death he had lost a personal 
friend." A fourth near relative was a member of the 

59 



"President's Guard" at Washington and lost his life 
in the war. The Dodds were patriotic in every 
crisis. According to a well preserved tradition "all 
of the name who were able to bear arms, it is believed, 
periled their lives for their country in the revolu- 
tionary struggle." To the Union army in the Civil 
war the Dodd family made heavy contribution. 
When one of these patriots of the sixties, Stephen 
Dodd, went to the front with a Pennsylvania regi- 
ment his father said of him, "He is five feet eleven 
in his boots, weighs 225 pounds; and, what is char- 
acteristic of the Dodd race, is smart as a whip." 

Tastes for mathematics and for mechanical inven- 
tion ran strong in the Dodd family through gener- 
ations. Daniel Dod designed the machinery and con- 
structed most of it for the Savannah, the first vessel 
that crossed the Atlantic by the aid of steam. A son 
of this Daniel Dod filled the professorship of math- 
ematics at Princeton fifteen years. Lebbeus Dod, 
the father of David, showed such mechanical genius 
that General George Washington detached him from 
the artillery to establish and conduct the armory for 
the manufacture of muskets with which to equip 
the Revolutionary forces. After the war Lebbeus 
Dod manufactured mathematical instruments. He 
invented the "parallel rule protractor." Three sons 
of Lebbeus Dod set up a manufactory of cotton 
machinery, much of their own designing. Daniel, one 
of the three, was induced by Governor Ogden to go 
into the manufacture of steam machinery as early 
as 1812. He invented a steamboat engine. Shops 
were established at Elizabethtown. The first engine 
was put in operation on the Sea Horse. When the 
boat reached New York City she was libeled by the 
backers of Robert Fulton. After that the Sea Horse 
ran between Elizabethport and Jersey City to avoid 

60 



trouble with the Fulton people. The next session of 
the New Jersey legislature passed an act granting to 
Daniel Dod exclusive right to steam navigation in 
New Jersey waters for five years. This was done to 
help Dod and Ogden in their fight against the New 
York monopoly. The New Jersey legislature con- 
sidered this an act of justice because of Daniel 
Dod's inventions and because Dod and Ogden repre- 
sented the rights of John Fitch who was credited 
with the invention of the first practicable steamboat 
ever made. When the New York boat Raritan, 
operating under the Fulton monopoly, landed at 
Brunswick, Dod and Ogden seized her. Then came 
litigation between Dod and Ogden on one side and 
the Robert Fulton people on the other. This con- 
troversy was of great interest in its time. The most 
eminent lawyers of the day were employed on the 
two sides. The contest between the Dod people on 
one side and the Fulton interests on the other is a 
matter of important legal history. In the end the 
sum of one dollar was paid to Fulton and his backer, 
Livingston, and the litigation was ended. 

The Sea Horse continued to run and made such 
profit that competition was encouraged. An oppo- 
sition line backed by Thomas Gibbon carried pas- 
sengers free of cost to break down the Dod line. 
One of Gibbon's boats was the historic Bellona. On 
the Gibbon line Commodore Vanderbilt, the head 
of the Vanderbilt family, began his steamboat career 
and the making of his fortune. Four generations 
later the Vanderbilts were among the supporters of 
Samuel M. Dodd in the development of the Amer- 
ican Brake Company. 

A descendant writes: "We claim for Daniel Dod 
the honor of having originated steam navigation, in 
which he had such faith that he often predicted 

61 



vessels would leave each side of the Atlantic with 
the regularity of ferry boats." 

The activity of Daniel Dod in the development of 
steam navigation began as early as 1812 and con- 
tinued until his death in 1821. This talent for 
engineering descended to Ezra K. Dod, the son of 
Daniel. About 1830 Ezra K. Dod was connected 
with the famous Dr. Nott in the Novelty Works. 
There he superintended the building of the steam- 
boat Novelty. That was the fastest craft on the 
Hudson river. Two or three years later Ezra K. 
Dod established a plant of his own and built from 
plans of Robert L. Stevens the first locomotive which 
hauled passengers on the Camden and Amboy rail- 
road. In 1835 he was invited to take charge of the 
railroads about to be constructed by .Russia, but 
declined on account of his health. Two years later 
he went to Cuba to take charge of the Iucaro rail- 
road. Ezra K. Dod was the inventor of a vacuum 
pan for cooking sugar, said to have been the best 
ever designed. 

About the middle of the Twelfth century, during 
the time of King Henry II, Cadwgan Dod lived in 
the County of Chester on the edge of Wales. His 
son Hova married the daughter and heiress of the 
Lord of Edge in Chester. Thus, according to the 
preserved genealogies, began "the race of Dods." 
Cadwgan Dod was a Saxon; the wife of Hova Dod 
was the granddaughter of Edwin, a Saxon thane 
who was not deprived of his land by the Norman 
conquest. The Dods, or Dodds as the most of the 
branches adopted the patronymic later, were " Com- 
moners of Great Britain and Ireland. Enjoying 
Territorial Possessions for High Official Rank." By 
his wife, Hova Dod inherited a fourth of the manor 
of Edge. The estate has been handed down through 

62 



the centuries. In succeeding generations there was 
always a "Dod of Edge." Burke says of the old 
home : 

Near one extremity of the Dod Estate in Edge in a place 
called Hall Heyes are vestiges of a mansion which was most 
probably the first residence of the family. The present 
seat is of considerable antiquity but has been so repeatedly 
altered in various styles that no date can be inferred from its 
architecture. This house has also been moated and stands 
very low, the ground sloping to it in almost every direction. 
At the back is a parklike enclosure ascending gently to a ter- 
race well planted with trees through the intercesses of which 
the eye commands the higher Boxton and Bickerton hills 
beyond, and in front the Cluydian hills. 

Hugo Dod one of the earlier descendants of Cadw- 
gan Dod married the heiress of Cloverly and estab- 
lished a branch of the family known as the "Dods of 
Cloverly." 

The Dods of Edge, the history of the Commoners 
says, "continued through a long line to hold prom- 
inent stations in the palatinate and to intermarry 
with the most eminent houses." 

In 1415 Sir Anthony Dod was knighted for his 
gallantry on "the glorious field of Agincourt." Henry 
V invading Normandy with an inferior and almost 
starving force found himself opposed by 60,000 
Frenchmen drawn up thirty deep in the open be- 
tween two forests. His archers made the attack and 
tempted the French to break their solid formation in 
a rush forward. Then King Henry with his men-at- 
arms flung himself on the broken ranks. The French 
fled leaving 11,000 dead, with a hundred princes and 
lords. Anthony Dod for his valor in that assault 
was knighted on the battlefield by King Henry. 

David Dod of Edge was one of the signers of the 
supplication to King Henry VI respecting the liber- 
ties of the palatinate. Parliament had come under 
complete control of the baronage and of the great 

63 



land owners. Even the Lower House was not repre- 
sentative of the Commons, when Dod of Edge and 
other Cheshire gentlemen made their complaint to 
the weak King, voicing the dissatisfaction which 
was to culminate in the War of the Roses and the 
downfall of the House of Lancaster. 

A later David Dod founded the Shochlach branch 
of the family of which a member was Thomas Dod 
who became a high dignitary of the church. He was 
archdeacon of Richmond, dean of Rippon and rector 
of Astbury. This was in the time of Edward IV. 

Of the Shochlach line was Rev. John Dod, nephew 
of Thomas the church dignitary. He was born 
according to one authority in 1547 and according to 
another in 1549. Unlike his uncle he did not aspire 
to clerical honors but "conceived an early dislike 
to some of the ceremonies or discipline of the church." 
From this bold protestant descended the family of 
American Dodds to which Samuel Morris Dodd 
belonged. Rev. John Dod was one of the original 
Puritans. He was suspended by the Bishop of Ox- 
ford for preaching church reform. After a time he 
was allowed to return to the pulpit only to be 
silenced again on the complaint of Bishop Neale to 
King James. It was during this period that he wrote 
a famous commentary on the Decalogue and the 
Proverbs. After the death of King James Rev. John 
Dod was given another living. The history of the 
Puritans says: 

Here he recommended himself as before, not more by his 
earnest and affectionate services in the pulpit than by his 
charity and hospitality, and particularly by his frequent 
visits and advice which last he delivered in a manner pecu- 
liarly striking to him. A great many of his sayings became 
almost proverbial and remained so for above a century, being 
as may yet be remembered frequently printed in a small 
tract and suspended in every cottage. 

64 



The hospitality of Rev. John Dod was of such gen- 
erous scope that he "kept open table" on Sundays 
and Wednesdays, the days of his lectures and enter- 
tained many guests. After his death in 1645 tribute 
was paid to him in these words: "Humble, meek, 
patient as in his censures of, so in his alms to others." 

In the present generation a nephew of Samuel M. 
Dodd is Randell Dodd. He was given his Christian 
name in recognition of the very close friendship be- 
tween John M. Randell and Samuel M. Dodd. This 
friendship began when the two stood in the relation 
of employer and employe; it developed when they 
became partners; it continued to increase as long as 
Mr. Randell lived and has been perpetuated between 
members of the Randell and Dodd families. A 
curious and an interesting fact is that for generations 
these family names were linked in England. As 
early as 1633 there was a Randle Dodd of Edge, a 
son of David Dod. He married Barbara Mordell 
who bequeathed her estates to the minor canons of 
Chester Cathedral. There were Randle Dods in the 
family down to the end of the Eighteenth century. 



65 



"Uncle Sam" Dodd, 
Helper of Men 

In his early life Mr. Dodd wore side whiskers — 
burnsides they were called after the famous Rhode 
Island general of the Civil war. That gave to him 
a dignified appearance and as Mr. Dodd was not a 
man of many words he seemed to those who did not 
know him well to be rather austere. Later in life, 
when he shaved smoothly with the exception of the 
mustache, the lines of the face revealed to all the 
gentle kindly nature which the more intimate had 
long realized. Associates in business and in recrea- 
tion quite naturally got in the way of calling Mr. 
Dodd "Uncle Sam." Mr. Dodd did nor resent the 
familiarity of the title. One day his confidential 
secretary, Mr. Allcorn, saw him take a postage stamp, 
moisten it, and stick it on the inner lining of his hat. 

"What's the answer" he asked. 

"My initials, U. S., Uncle Sam!" And Mr. Dodd 
smiled, placed his hat on his head and walked out of 
the office. 

Dr. Niccolls, who knew, says, "I suppose in later 
times one-half of Mr. Dodd's income was given to 
charitable purposes. He was one of the most liberal 
givers. I don't think that in any application I ever 
made to him I was refused." 

The benefactions of Mr. Dodd took on a wide range. 
Through more than two generations, before the days 
of the social workers and institutional churches, 
Thomas Morrison carried on a mission north of 
Franklin avenue. He did a world of good in uplift- 
ing the weary and heavy laden. He redeemed hun- 
dreds of the young who had started wrong. When 

66 



he died three years ago the city mourned for him. 
Only those who sat in the same office with him 
through a long series of years knew that Mr. Dodd 
was one of Thomas Morrison's chief financial back- 
ers in his good work. Mr. Adrcon remembers that 
as often as three times a week Mr. Morrison would 
call. "Hello, Old Tom!" would be the capitalist's 
greeting as the friend of the unfortunate entered the 
door. Then followed some pretense of argument as 
to the results of the mission. And the call always 
ended in the signing of a check by Mr. Dodd. 

The Dodd home was for many years a large stone 
mansion on Garrison and Lucas avenues. From 
there Mr. Dodd moved to Vandeventer Place. He 
heard his niece, Miss Florence Dodd, who lived with 
him talk of the plans and hopes of the Young 
Women's Christian Association. He suggested that 
the association occupy the vacated mansion until 
a better place was found. The offer was accepted 
and for years at a nominal rental the former home 
of Mr. Dodd sheltered "the Y. W." As the associa- 
tion expanded more room was needed. The officers 
of the association especially desired to supply phys- 
ical recreation to the business women. Mr. Dodd 
built the gymnasium adjacent to the mansion. Un- 
der this encouragement the association grew to that 
importance which justified and made successful the 
campaign for the clubhouse on Locust street, 
recently completed and occupied. 

The Dodd way of doing good had method in it. 
Captain Hodges said one day: 

"Mr. Dodd, here's a boy with a natural talent for 
painting. He has been making pictures for suits of 
clothes and the like. He ought to have a chance. 
I've got up a scheme to send him to Europe to study." 

67 



Mr. Dodd didn't say he would contribute to a 
fund. What he said was: 

"I'll give him an order for a picture to cost $150." 

He did his part and at the same time encouraged 
the self respect of the boy who was Will Chase, 
since famous in the art world. 

In like manner Mr. Dodd helped Howe, who was a 
clerk in a dry goods store and displayed a good deal 
of taste in color. He raised the money which gave 
Howe his chance in Paris and enabled him to be- 
come a great cattle painter. But the money was 
not given outright; it was in the form of a number 
of commissions to paint pictures for the contrib- 
utors. 

Mr. Dodd went into half a dozen or more of these 
plans to help young St. Louis artists but always 
with the condition that the contribution was a com- 
mission to paint something. When the struggle 
abroad grew rather intense for one of these proteges, 
Mr. Dodd saw Mr. Parsons or somebody else and 
sent on another order for a picture. 

"He was not self-seeking; he had as little thought 
of self advancement in what he did as any man of 
whom I have had knowledge in St.. Louis," Dr. Nic- 
colls says. In Mr. Dodd's relationship to the World's 
Fair was an illustration of this. Mr. Dodd personally 
and the corporations in which he was a leading 
director contributed to the capital stock of the 
Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company. By rea- 
son of his knowledge and taste in art matters and 
by reason of his many years' connection with the 
electrical industry Mr. Dodd was placed on the 
two committees having to do with those subjects. 
He was vice-chairman of the Committee on Fine 
Arts from the organization. When the death of 

68 



Isaac W. Morton made a vacancy in the chairman- 
ship of that committee, Mr. Dodd waived the suc- 
cession on the ground that he believed more 
could be accomplished by another; he joined the 
other directors in the election of W. K. Bixby. At 
the last annual meeting of the World's Fair board 
this expression offered by Mr. Bixby for his com- 
mittee was placed upon the records: 

In offering tribute to the memory of the late Samuel M. 
Dodd, the directors of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition 
Company record the passing of one of the earliest and most 
steadfast supporters of the enterprise. 

Mr. Dodd was a member of the Board of Directors from 
the first organization of the corporation; he was vice-chairman 
of the Committee on Fine Arts and member of the Committee 
on Electricity and Electrical Appliances. During his half 
century of residence in St. Louis, Mr. Dodd was a patron of 
art. He was a pioneer promoter of the electrical industry 
in this city. To the organization and supervision of two im- 
portant departments of the Exposition he brought, therefore, 
not only active interest but valuable experience. 

A citizen of St. Louis from his young manhood, his loyalty 
to the place of his adoption was unswerving. Material, 
artistic and philanthropic concerns of this community found 
in him always a receptive listener and a ready helper. That 
Samuel M. Dodd served his generation well, his fellow direc- 
tors take the opportunity of their annual meeting to testify. 

By his individual subscription and the subscrip- 
tions of corporations in which he was a leading 
director, Mr. Dodd ranked as one of the largest con- 
tributors to the World's Fair fund of $5,000,000. 
Mr. Dodd and these companies gave to the World's 
Fair $90,000. 

In the Committee on Art Mr. Dodd was associ- 
ated with Isaac W. Morton, W. K. Bixby, James E. 
Smith, Thomas H. McKittrick, Adolphus Busch, 
H. B. Spencer and Howard Elliott. Early in the 
organization of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition 
this committee took earnest action to commit the 
Board of Directors to the erection of a permanent 
art building. Under ordinary exposition practice the 

69 



art building would have been made fireproof but 
would have been of temporary construction. That 
St. Louis to-day has a million dollar city art museum 
is due in large measure to the energetic work of Mr. 
Dodd and the associates on the committee of which 
he was vice-chairman. 

On the Committee of Electricity and Electrical 
Appliances Mr. Dodd served with James E. Smith, 
Joseph Ramsey, Charles A. Stix, A. A. Allen and 
August Gehner. Under the encouraging supervision 
of this committee, Directer Skiff and Chief Golds- 
borough organized one of the most notable exhibit 
departments of the Exposition. 

"I never knew a man more ready to help other 
men in business," Dr. Niccolls said, "The amount 
he lost by indorsing to aid others would have made 
a fortune." 

Embarrassment in the dry goods business came 
about through indorsement. Mr. Dodd was one 
of four signers on a note for $58,000. With some 
assistance he paid off the note in full and became the 
owner of some doubtful securities which had been 
given to the endorsers. This is not one of the cases 
of ultimate loss for some years later this bunch of 
bonds which seemed almost worthless at the time 
yielded over $200,000. With the profit realized by 
this transaction Mr. Dodd was able to take hold of 
the American Brake problem when his friends made 
the Macedonian appeal to him. 

There was another instance in which Mr. Dodd 
paid out $60,000 to fulfill what he deemed a personal 
obligation and in which nothing came back to him. 

"His inner life was a pure one," said Dr. Niccolls. 
The forms of recreation which most appealed to him 
were evidence of it. In his earlier years as a business 
man Mr. Dodd kept good horses and drove much. 

70 



Even then there was room for some one less for- 
tunate beside him. 

"I have never forgotten what Mr. Dodd did for 
me at a time when I felt I was down and out," a 
well known and prosperous St. Louisan said. "Things 
had been going against me. I was poor. I rather 
shunned my former associates. Mr. Dodd would 
come around with his team and invite me to ride 
with him. Somewhere in the country he would stop 
and we would have a good dinner. Coming back 
to town I would feel as if new life had been given me. 
Mr. Dodd never referred to my circumstances or to 
his motive in choosing me for his companion. He 
had a sense of delicacy which enabled him to do such 
a thing in just the right way. The ride and the 
dinner and the talk would seem to give me new hope 
and courage. All of this was a good many years 
ago but I have never forgotten it." 

When Mr. Dodd was asked by a newspaper man 
to tell his favorite forms of recreation, his memory 
went back over the twenty-eight summers in the 
Adirondacks and he said promptly, "Hunting and 
fishing." To these could be added whist. He played 
many evenings at the St. Louis Club with a coterie 
which included E. C. Simmons, Judge E. B. Adams, 
Wallace Delafield and the late George E. Leighton. 
Mr. Dodd was fond of books. He read a great deal, 
but not fiction. 

"I don't remember to have heard of his reading 
a novel," James W. Bell said. 

In 1874 Mr. Dodd was elected president of the 
Mercantile Library. At that time St. Louis had no 
public library. The Public School Library of which 
Mr. Crunden was librarian was comparatively 
small. For good reading the community depended 
upon the Mercantile. Mr. Dodd showed his interest 

71 



by very active administration of the association's 
affairs. In the first year of his presidency there were 
added 606 new members, notwithstanding the fact 
that the panic of 1873 had preceded. The members 
of the association were so impressed with the effi- 
ciency of Mr. Dodd's administration that at the an- 
nual meeting a resolution was adopted expressing "as 
much surprise as gratification at the prosperity of the 
affairs of the Mercantile Library Association during 
the past year." The resolution commented on "a 
marked increase in the value of the property of the 
association as well as the enhancement of the inter- 
est taken in the advantages of the library by the 
attendance in its rooms, of readers and visitors, and 
by the number of volumes taken out — an increase that 
could hardly have been anticipated if our judgment 
were to be governed by the financial condition dur- 
ing the past year." The association returned thanks 
to President Dodd and his fellow directors. 

In his report of that year Mr. Dodd, true to his 
interest in art as well as literature, congratulated the 
association that "among the valuable works acquired 
of much interest is a splendid copy of Gavard's 
'Galeries Historiques de Versailles,' in thirteen vol- 
umes, beautifully illustrated." 

The Mercantile Library of St. Louis is noted far 
and wide for its collection of books relating to art, a 
collection which Mr. Dodd as a life-long friend of 
the institution constantly encouraged. 

In closing his report for 1874 President Dodd urged 
earnestly "upon merchants, manufacturers and 
others the importance of having the young men con- 
nected with them associated with the library and 
brought under its beneficent influences." 

Mr. Dodd was re-elected for 1875, in which year 
there were enrolled 578 new members. 



''In the purchase of books," President Dodd 
reported, "we have followed the traditional policy of 
the association in keeping pace with the best current 
literature of the age. It seems to be the general 
impression in the community that our association is 
wealthy and needs no aid nor contributions from any 
source. But we desire to impress upon our fellow- 
members and the public that this is not the case, 
and that it is only through constant effort that we 
may expect to grow in the future, so as to keep pace 
with what has been done in the past. The present 
condition of the association and the success it has 
achieved are due not entirely to the subscriptions 
of the members, but to the generosity and the earnest 
zeal of those who labored for the institution at the 
beginning. When we look back to their efforts, and 
remember what we owe to them, it should cause 
every member to work with renewed energy, and to 
do all in his power to enhance the success of this 
association. It has amply repaid every assistance 
that has been given to it, and it has largely con- 
tributed towards the prosperity of our city, by 
developing the taste and increasing the knowledge 
which leads to success in life. Let us not lose sight 
of the fact that this work has been handed down to 
us for our care and protection, that it is an inheri- 
tance which we cannot prize too highly, and we 
should cherish it as one of the greatest of boons." 
Not only was the high standard of the library 
maintained during the administration of President 
Dodd, but the usefulness of the institution was 
widely expanded through his efforts. During Mr. 
Dodd's first term as president the charter of the 
Mercantile Library association was amended by the 
Legislature, creating a board of five trustees to 
manage the real estate. This act provided that the 

73 



trustees must be ex-presidents of the association. 
Some time after he retired from the presidency 
Mr. Dodd was chosen as one of these trustees. He 
continued to perform the duties as long as he lived. 
The value of the association's property increased 
$15,000 during the two years that Mr. Dodd was 
president. Under the trustees the real estate be- 
came worth five times what it was in 1875. Mr. 
Dodd's interest in the institution continued to the 
end. 

Mr. Dodd did not marry. Devotion to business 
engrossed him in earlier manhood. But at forty he 
felt his position was assured and his thoughts turned 
to the choice of a life partner. An engagement was 
formed with a lady much younger. In the planning 
for the future she wanted a wedding journey to 
Europe. Mr. Dodd did not think he could afford 
to take the time and he said so frankly. In the good 
natured discussion that followed, their divergent 
views of life, its interests and claims were revealed 
to them. Mutually they reached the conclusion 
that it was best to break the engagement. The 
diamond ring was returned. When Mr. Dodd left 
the house, the young lady went with him to the gate 
and shook hands with him. They parted as lovers 
but remained good friends. For years that diamond 
ring lay in a drawer of the safe at the store; it 
was never offered to another lady. After this one 
experience Mr. Dodd looked forward to single life as 
his lot. But he found not only contentment but 
joyous satisfaction in affection for his nephews and 
nieces. His youngest brother, Marcus Dixon Dodd, 
died in 1896. To the eight children of this brother 
Samuel M. Dodd took the place of father. In no 
perfunctory sense as if assuming an obligation but 
with real interest in seeing them do well, he looked 

74 



after them growing and grown. He was "Uncle 
Sam" to nearly a score of nieces and nephews and 
took it as a privilege to see that all of them received 
better than ordinary educational advantages. 

Mr. Dodd did not die a millionaire. Accumula- 
tion did not appeal to him strongly. An impelling 
motive with him was to develop. That marked 
characteristic Albert Blair describes as "a natural 
aptitude for upbuilding business enterprises." In 
the natural operation of this bent Mr. Dodd did 
not retire; he did not lock up securities in a safe 
deposit box. At eighty he was still an active force 
in the enterprises which he had helped so materially 
to create and, what is perhaps more notable, his 
capital was working, nearly every dollar of it for the 
benefit of St. Louis. Even when his failing health, 
in the last few months of his life, warned him that the 
end was near he did not attempt to close up his 
affairs. He contented himself with the drawing of 
an instrument which disposed of an estate. When 
he had gone over the details with a legal friend, 
Mr. Dodd remarked: 

"I think there will be about #500,000." 

The lawyer estimated that the estate would be 
larger, perhaps #750,000. 

"Possibly," said Mr. Dodd, "but we'll count on 
about #500,000. That will be safe." 

When the estate was inventoried for probate pur- 
poses, the extent to which Mr. Dodd had kept his 
capital active was apparent in the relation he sus- 
tained with banks and trust companies. He had 
borrowed large sums to expand his business enter- 
prises but over and above every dollar he owed was 
the net margin of between #500,000 and #750,000 
to be distributed under his will. 

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"One prime quality he had," said Mr. Blair, "was 
his superior judgment of men. Another was his 
manifest integrity. His associates never doubted 
the truth of his statements nor the rectitude of his 
purpose." 

A twin motive to that of upbuilding business in- 
spired Mr. Dodd's activities. It was the inclination 
to help others. Mr. Dodd believed in "passing pros- 
perity around." He had many partners in the course 
of his three generations of business connections in 
St. Louis. "Helper of men," Mr. Blair called him. 
The evidence is the scores of St. Louisans who to-day 
enjoy competencies gained in their association with 
Mr. Dodd. 

Samuel Morris Dodd, Upbuilder of Business, 
Helper of Men! What better epitaph? 



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